Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!motcid!derosa
From: derosa@cell.mot.COM (John DeRosa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: PhoneNET receives patent
Message-ID: <1699@diamond2.UUCP>
Date: 16 Mar 90 15:47:06 GMT
References: <10919@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> <1676@diamond2.UUCP> <39510@apple.Apple.COM>
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Heights, IL
Lines: 33

jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson) writes:

>Dear Friend -
>  If you had read the rest of the message, you would have seen that they 
>were going to license the patents to interested parties.  And what is 
>wrong with people making money off of their skull sweat....I just don't 
>understand the attitude that says it is wrong to invent something and
>then protect that invention.

The following is a flame:

The point is that they have had phonenet out for many moons, have let
the clones do their thing and now are lowering the boom.  I am all
for patent protection but Farrallon should have made it clear to 
the clones that the patent was forthcoming.

I predict that several small companies will probable go belly up
because of this or (and this is certain) the price of the clones
will go up (because of the licensing fees) AND Farrallon will 
raise their prices OR keep them steady for an extended period
or time.

The benefits of patents are the incentive to develop new products.
The detrement is that only one company can produce the product and
can force inflated pricing on the public (look at the Mac).  The
benefits of freely licensing patents can be seen by the rapid
takeover of the computer market by MS-DOS machines.  OF couse,
the down side of this is that MS-DOS development has produced a
non-standardized interface and a stagnant architecture while
Macs have shown the way to the future. 

After saying all this I am unsure if this was a flame or an
agreement, you figure it out.  I suppose this is just discussion.