[Steven Lake]

Ok, I've been having an ongoing debate with several people of late over my use of warp drives, torpedoes, impulse drive and particle transporters in my books. The people I've talked to say that these items were created by Star Trek, and therefore my use of them is infringement on the Star Trek trademark. My argument is that they are not unique to Star Trek (not much is really), and were actually concepts that have been around for a while and ultimately derived from other works of sci-fi, and ultimately conscripted into Star Trek, and are thus not unique or originally created by Star Trek.

So here's what I've gathered. Warp drive is a sci-fi technology concept that was actually first pioneered by John G Cramer in 1934 (he called it Micro-warp, but it's still the same thing). The idea was further enhanced by up to a half dozen other authors in the 1950-66 period based off of Einstein's theories and other revelations of science that came about during that 16 year period.

Now with photon torpedoes, I'll give Star Trek the win on this one, but only as far as the name goes, as they did in fact coin the name, but not the technology, as the use of torpedoes has been around in sci-fi since the turn of the century, as torpedoes themselves in their various incipient forms have been around since the early 19th century. Of course, even Flash Gordon used a type of photon torpedo, even if it wasn't specifically named that. Agree?

Particle Transporters are actually an Einstein creation, as his theory of the interchangeability of matter and energy was spawned in the early 1900's and first used by sci-fi authors in the 1930's. I mean, even shows like Flash Gordon used it. The idea of "beaming" was even around during the early radio days, as it was sometimes said that you could "beam your voice" across the air using the radio and be heard miles away.

And lastly, impulse drive is merely another form of repulsion drive, and good lord that's been around since shortly after electro-magnetism was first pioneered. Maybe not in the form we recognize, but certainly the initial concepts were pioneered way back then and over time expanded into the ideas we know and recognize today, such as direct matter to energy particle transport.

So, with those arguments laid out, can anyone help me with validating this argument that Star Trek was NOT the first one to use any of these four concepts, nor are they unique to the show, but were merely borrowed from other sci-fi authors or shows? Also, how many other authors out there use the concepts of warp drive today, some even calling it by name? I mean, even Nasa talks about warp drive these days.