Ditto! And if some company can turn these ideas into useful products then good for them.I am not pissed off at all; happy to help; even with manufacturers of the lenses but dave's bulk purchase will mean it in the end is best to get them from him, I am not on PL to make money from anyone. For me PL is a virtual space to help each other; less of an online market.
Andy knows more, but I can tell you it's basically two things, 'knife edging' with mirrors steering beams at right angles to put beams closely parallel, and telescopes to change the tradeoff of diameter and divergence. Neither alone is patentable but Newton might have managed it if he could have, and wanted to, and it amazes me that putting the two together is enough to be significantly new invention after so many centuries, but they wangled it somehow.
Patents can be a pain sometimes! I invented something when I was a teenager - even made a scale prototype but had no money to take it forward. Something similar was later patented by someone else. Proving that something is not in public knowledge is a tricky business.
Saying that, there are always ways of trolling![]()