Actually, the ultimate solution may be a simpler one than may first be pereceived. If the point here iis that a patented process is at stake, perhaps, when all is said and done, a licensing agreement may be the resolution. If that is the real intent of FS, then perhaps this may be much ado about very little as that can be worked out. The rub in the oitment, I can see, may be one bit of marketing info that this would require GWmicro to release -- the number of sold copies of WE as well as the number of demos distributed and downloaded. Perhaps a withdrawal of the placemarker feature, at this time and place, might also be prudent until all this can be worked out. FS is a corporate entity unlike GWmicro and Serotek; and the mentality that corporations work under marches to a different drummer. This industry may be reaching the stage where individual entrepreneurs may no longer be able to march safely and maybe perhaps GWmicro may have to affiliate itself with a larger technology entity for that kind of protection. This no longer is the cottage industry that Dan and Doug entered, first working for Computer Aids, 2 decades ago. The products and product lines are more complex, the marketing has changed, and the intertwining technologies are broader and broader. Unfortunately, the focus now has to go beyond merely producing a topnotch product. The stakes are much higher; the potential markets bigger. Those potential rewards are larger; so are the risks that the players face. In short, screen readers have come a long way since the early 1990s; and as they have, the business has become more like a business than a first love. I suspect that for Doug and Dan, this has meant a change in the way they have to view thingsand would reduce the enthusiasm for what they do. Hopefully, lawyers on both sides can find a common ground and bring up a solution for this instance and come up with a framework so that things like them don't recur. That last point may be more significant than resolving the placemarker patent as otherwise this kind of thing could end up occurring over and over.
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