Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!sgi!vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com
From: vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Hayes Microcomputer lawsuit???
Message-ID: <83693@sgi.sgi.com>
Date: 1 Feb 91 19:20:32 GMT
References: <1510@public.BTR.COM> <3759.27a62207@hayes.uucp>
Sender: guest@sgi.sgi.com
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Lines: 20

In article <3759.27a62207@hayes.uucp>, tnixon@hayes.uucp writes:
>   ...    One such 
> patent is the Heatherington '302 patent, "Modem with Improved Escape 
> Sequence", which relates to the guard time associated with the "+++" 
> escape sequence used to change the modem from online to command 
> state.


I seem to remember that the ARPANET TIP's in the late 1960's and early
1970's used a similar "guard time" around the "@" character used to signify
that you wanted to stop talking accross the 56Kb links and fiddle with the
local modem (well, packet switch, but same idea).  If I remember correctly,
would that ancient mechanism effect the validity of the Hayes patent?

It is strange and unfortunate that such an obvious idea should have a
defendable patent.  Yes, the idea is obvious even before reading a Hayes
(compatible) manual.


Vernon Schryver,   vjs@sgi.com