Re: [Patents] GregNews: swpat solve MS monopoly problems

[Bernard Lang <Bernard.Lang@inria.fr>]

I just reread the stuff about patent insurance.
http://www.eu2002.dk/news/news_read.asp?iInformationID=24038

It is just a public show of stupidity.  The insurance is only for
companies who want to sue for infringement.
   But the real problem is for companies that are sued, enven without
merit.

  In the first case, insurance is not really needed.  If the company
has a good case, it can get the lawyers to sur for free, but passing
an agreement to share whatever they can extract from the alleged
infringer.

   On the other hand, an SME that is the object of a suit without
merit has nothing to gain.  Or very little.  Hence no way to pass an
agreement with anyone.  And it is likely to go bankrupt trying to
defend itself before the case is seen through.  This is typically what
happenened to Getris-Image (all the patents used in the suit were
later cancelled in another suit, but Getris had gone bankrupt long
before that).

   They want to protect the guys who hold guns, not those who are
being threatened.
   Maybe they could also use Charlton Heston and the NRA as advisers
in Denmark.  I thought better of Danes.  Maybe the old viking
bloodthirst surfacing again.

Bernard

On Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 11:28:21AM +0100, Xavi Drudis Ferran wrote:
> El Thu, Nov 14, 2002 at 09:08:41AM +0100, PILCH Hartmut deia:
> > the Eolas lawsuit against Microsoft, and I will be boring by repeatedly
> > pointing out that none of these challenges against Microsoft would be
> > possible with copyrighted software such as anything open source.
> 
> On the possibility of the Eolas challenge being possible, I haven't 
> read much about it, but can someone share more light on these doubts:
> 
> 
> I have only read
> http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20021107.html
> 
> not slashdot, not the patent document, no nothing. My gut feeling,
> without much info is:
> 
> I doubt that:
> 
> a) Eolas can win. I mean has enough money to prosecute the case to the end,
> nothing to do with who is right or the validity of any patent.
> 
> b) Eolas can impose an alternative browser. A browser would infringe
> on many patents, some probably by MS, some by other that would feel
> threathened by their plans. So you could only end up with no legal
> broser at all, or disfunctional legal browsers. Remember, JPEG, tabbed
> palletes, GIF, parts of XML, SOAP and other protocols, and
> cryptographic software are patented.
> 
> c) Having a browser platform built on patent exclusion instead of
> competition would improve in any way the market.
> 
> This sounds like the typical crazy scientist developing the ultimate
> weapon to threaten the evil forces and save the Earth, assuming the
> end justifies the means.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Xavi Drudis Ferran
> xdrudis@tinet.org

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