OpenAir Cyan
This product is a small portable device that allows individuals to experience capturing carbon– a way to get more people actively thinking about their carbon footprint and their role in causing harm to the environment.
As a predominately functional product with very minimal aesthetic design elements, this product is unlikely to receive copyright protection. However, without an open source license, if people were to come across the product’s design and were curious about creating their own to have first-hand experience with carbon removal, they might be hesitant to actually recreate the device for fear of legal liability. This hesitation would be antithetical to the product’s very purpose – to get people thinking about their carbon footprint by experiencing carbon removal for themselves.
The CERN OHL v2.0, P Variant license overcomes that barrier. Not only does it assure the public that the product is truly “open” for public use, the P Variant also doesn’t require downstream users to apply the same license to any modifications they make to the product’s design – something that can also hinder public use.
Licenses
Hardware
CERN-OHL-P-2.0As a predominately functional product with very minimal aesthetic design elements, this product is unlikely to receive copyright protection. However, without an open source license, if people were to come across the product’s design and were curious about creating their own to have first-hand experience with carbon removal, they might be hesitant to actually recreate the device for fear of legal liability. The CERN OHL v2.0, P Variant license overcomes that barrier. Not only does it assure the public that the product is truly “open” for public use, the P Variant also doesn’t require downstream users to apply the same license to any modifications they make to the product’s design – something that can also hinder public use.
Software
GPLUnlike the CERN-P harware license, the GPL license on the software imposes strong obligations of reciprocity on downstream users.
The CC BY-SA is more permissive than the GPL software license and less permissive than the CERN P license. In controls how people can reproduce and build upon the documentation for the hardware.
Branding
Information
OpenAir and Cyan are non-descriptive and thus both likely to be protectable by trademark law.
Protectability Spectrum of Project Components
OpenAir Cyan Hardware
As a predominately functional product with very minimal aesthetic design elements, this product’s hardware is unlikely to receive copyright protection.
