Just had the thought that if lift has patented efoils are we actually allowed to make them for personal use?
Better ask the other manufacturers. 
We are only some crazy diy’s.
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I’m not a lawyer and this is my personal opinion.
If you infringe on a copyright to ANY degree or percentage you are open to the holder of the copyright to use the existing law that protects that copyright to attempt to seek a judgement that stops you from doing that. This of course can be different based on location.
However the big companies would likely not come after you if you are doing DIY for personal use as it’s not worth their time or might create a PR problem for them. If you making things for resale is an entirely different story.
As far as I know the patent only protects against selling copied things.
So it is not applicable to DIY for personal use.
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We aspire to start a USA-based eFoil business. I discussed this same topic with my attorney and will share a summary of that conversation.
Disclaimer… I am not an attorney and could very easily misinterpret/miscommunicate something my attorney told me. So, always seek your own legal advice from a licensed professional!
If you’re not directly copying their design, then it’s not an infringement on their patent. e.g. If I see an eFoil at the lake and say I want to build one and then independently design all the parts, that WOULD NOT BE infringement. Now, if I take a Lift board to my engineers and say reverse engineer this, and then they make a product that is an exact copy, using the same components, and all the measurements are identical, then that WOULD BE infringement.
Additionally, there’s lots of buzz out there about whether the Lift patent is even enforceable since the eFoil design was made public knowledge by a group of research students years before the Lift patent was issued.
I’ll also add from my own understanding of patent law that the invention can’t be “obvious”. When I look at an eFoil, I see a traditional surf foil board, which have been around for decades, with a motor strapped to it. Adding a motor seems like an “obvious” improvement. Why pump? Why use wind to push you? The “obvious” next step is to add a motor!
With all that being said, you can still pretty much sue anyone for anything. Having zero proof of crime will not prevent a lawsuit from starting. Even though we have 100% confidence we can build an eFoil without infringing on the Lift (MHL Company) patent, it wouldn’t stop them from using their deep pockets to slow down our business plans. I can’t speak to their mindset, but many businesses view these ruthless tactics as a basic strategy.
In order to avoid a lot of this legal hassle, we have started discussions with Lift attempting to acquire a license from them. We see this as a reasonable compromise in order to grow this amazing sport.
If successful, we plan to bring an eFoil to market at similar prices to Waydoo boards, but with a much higher standard for quality. Once we’re up, running, and stable, we have a handful of innovations we plan to bring to the sport.
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