On Mer, 2003-07-23 at 16:53, Fargusson.Alan wrote: > Actually this kind of thing was common in the early days of the automobile industry. > There was even a patent granted on the car. GM and Chrysler paid royalties to > someone for years, but Henry Ford refused. The case went on for several years. The > patent holder died, and his family decided to drop the patent claim. > > There is a lot of cross licensing in the automobile industry, and a lot of working > around patents by making small changes in the design, then filing a new patent. I > hope the software industry does not go the same route, since this has caused > stagnation in the automobile industry. Have you noticed that most cars look like > they were designed by the same guy?
Its a fine longstanding tradition of fighting progress with lawyers Marconi was forced to build his telegraph station outside newfoundland - by lawyers. The useful high pressure steam engine was delayed many years by patent lawyers. Intel v AMD is another fine example of the SCO technique btw if you look back at the 386/486 days. Nowdays there is a simple solution people are adopting - make the bloody thing somewhere that has less lawyers, import it through a front company and fold the front company if you are ever sued. Keeps wages down, liabilities controlled and all the cash out of the hands of the IRS... And then people wonder why there are no IT jobs left 8)
