Can a non-profit organization use a patent without paying a licensing fee if it makes no money on its own invention? Let's assume that the company designs a chip based on the x86 architecture and then makes the design open-source. Will the non-profit company have to pay Intel for using the x86 architecture or not? Assume that this is in the United States.
1 Answer
Patents give exclusive rights to their owner
It doesn’t matter who wants to use it, they need the owner’s permission.
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Provided that the patent is still in force. I think a patent on the x86 architecture would be long expired. Commented Aug 10, 2021 at 22:09
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And in any case, a patent would only cover certain aspects of the x86 architecture. The key point is, if what you are doing is covered by a patent, then the fact that you're a non-profit and not making money is irrelevant; but your example doesn't sound like something that would necessarily be covered by a patent. Commented Jul 14, 2022 at 23:21