Re: AKA Libertarians
In the US, engineering is regulated by statue and licensed at the state level - there is no federal requirement for an engineering license - and there are a ton of state-level exceptions, BTW. This means, and it has repeatedly held up in court, that the design of things "suitable for interstate commerce" is protected under the interstate commerce clause of the constitution. Approximately the only Electrical Engineers who are licensed Professional Engineers are the ones who do electric power generation and distribution - it's hard to ship a gigawatt generation facility across state lines. On the other hand, aerospace engineers are very rarely licensed. It happens, of course, but it's rare.
The case, like the Oregon one, will be tossed once it finally makes it to court, probably when he testifies that he was able to transport the umbrella in question to another state. :-)
In Canada, by contrast, the term "engineer" is protected not by statute but by trademark (!!!) and the rules are (a) different and (b) unfamiliar to me. Other former client states of the empire will probably vary as well.
Icon because I'm checking my jacket pocket to ensure I still have my "50 states and Canada" cellphone in there...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
