More valid points, Eric, however, even if gW had breached an FS
patent the latter has chosen the wrong method to address the problem.
A few strongly worded letters from their lawyers would have been
enough to resolve the matter relatively amicably. That much is
evident in Doug's blog. What they have done sends out a clear signal
that they mean to hurt their rival. As we say over here, it's not
cricket! It's the opportunistic and mercenary nature of their
approach that makes me angry. Surely, you can see that.
John
At 17:27 26/07/2008, you wrote:
Ray, as an AD pro, I agree with you onthe legality and the the
situational stuff. I don't think jaws is a good 5 year investment at
this point, so I don't recomend it to my clients, but never-the-less,
it does the job more or less, and has a venerable history behind it.
As far as talking about it goes, most of the opinions I've been
reading aren't very informed. The suite is public record, but most of
us really don't have enough background to talk about this
inteligently. I'm including myself here. I haven't read the
complaint, and I haven't done a comparison of the jaws and window-eyes
place marker features, and I don't know the US laws that are sited in
the complaint. The GW staff themselves began this afray. I doubt
they'll be inclined to stop it unless the comments get really
inflamatory. So far most people have been pretty cool about it. No
one's threatening to burn down Eric Damery's hpouse in the middle of
the night, smiles.
I'm not sure it's productive, especially with the beta in testing. I
know it's a bit in my way. I'm doing mobile geo testing as well as
tracking the progress of the window-eyes beta, and my in box is really
jammed right now. But I don't think it's hurting anything either and
we aren't going t see the furror die down any time soon.
Best,
Erik
erik burggraaf
Certified Technician
Assistive Computing LTD Support and training
Sales department: 888-828-2445
Support and Training: 888-255-5194
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website coming soon
On 25-Jul-08, at 8:27 AM, Ray Campbell wrote:
Hello All:
While I am not a lawyer and certainly don't know much about patent
law,
I want to throw out a few comments on the Freedom Scientific Vs. GW
Micro lawsuit from an Adaptive Technology Professional's point of
view.
The charge of patent infrungement is a very serious one. Companies
obtain patents to protect things they have invented, intellectual
property and a host of other things. When a patent is infringed,
all of
the work which the patent holder put into their product is, in effect,
being stolen and used by the entity infringing on a patent to make a
profit.
We do not know how the courts are going to rule in this case, and,
this
case may take years to make its way through the Federal system. The
Federal courts are not exactly known for moving things along quickly.
What we do know is, there will be depositions and discovery and
Freedom
Scientific will be forced to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that GW
Micro has infringed on its patent. This is a high burden of proof.
Having said all of this, I personally find the actions taken by
Freedom
Scientific disgusting. These actions make Freedom Scientific appear
as
though they believe GW Micro is a huge threat to their business, and
they make Freedom look as though they want to stifle free and fair
competition. If GW has engaged in patent infringement, which I do not
believe they have based on what I know so far, they need to be stopped
from doing so. There are many features which are alike in both screen
reading products. FS and its legal team would say these are not
patented. Suing over placemarkers comes across as silly in my
opinion.
The only ones who will be hurt by all of this are those of us who are
blind, and the consumers we serve. Say FS wins, and GW Micro is
forced
out of business. That would leave us who are blind one less choice in
Adaptive Technology. The same would be the case if FS were to go
out of
business.
We need to foster an environment where consumers who are blind have
many
choices in the adaptive solutions they use. This reduces prices and
forces companies to innovate and make new, better features available.
FS and their legal team believe GW Micro is bringing forward new
features in a way that violates their patent. Let the courts decide
on
that.
One last thing. All of us on the various lists need to be careful
what
we say about this publicly. GW Micro's e-mail list moderators should
probably barr any discussions of this matter on their e-mail lists.
This battle will be fought in the courts and nothing we as customers
of
either Freedom Scientific or GW Micro will change the outcome of that
process. Yes, we all have our opinions and at this point, can share
them. But, if and when the lawyers tell both companies to stop public
discussion of this legal matter, we all need to respect that.
Ray Campbell, Help Desk Technician
Adaptive Technology Center
Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
1850 W. Roosevelt Road
Chicago, IL 60608
312-997-3651 (Voice/Relay) or
888-825-0080 (voice/Relay)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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