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From: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: AT&T using patent to go after people using X
Message-ID: <8428@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 25 Feb 91 00:43:57 GMT
References: <1748@pdxgate.UUCP> <1991Feb24.135201.9052@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1991Feb24.175524.20105@coplex.uucp>
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Reply-To: zerkle@iris.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Organization: U.C. Davis - Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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In article <1991Feb24.175524.20105@coplex.uucp> dean@coplex.uucp (Dean Brooks) writes:

>BTW, does anyone think that AT&T can make a viable claim off this?

No, they can't.  However, there are a whole lot of companies out there
that would rather spend the money on the "license" than spend a whole
lot of money on lawyers to challenge the inevitable suit from AT&T.
AT&T is simply gambling that everybody will meekly pay up.

Obviously, this will have serious detrimental effects on users.
Either they will pay more for their packages, or they will get
software with inferior performance.  This is the problem with
litigation over software.  Most people don't even argue about it, even
when it is wrong.  It's cheaper to just pay up.  It is not the direct
effects on companies that is really harmful, but rather the stifling,
indirect effects that slow down innovation, and prevent people from
using good ideas in their products.

In this particular case, it might be worth challenging.  If anybody
can show that there was any kind of a system before 1985 (the date of
AT&T's patent) that used a backing store, it will be provable that the
idea was widely known before the patent, and therefore the idea is not
patentable.  Come to think of it, there is a certain system that uses
a backing store for its windows, and it came out right around
1985....

           Dan Zerkle  zerkle@iris.eecs.ucdavis.edu  (916) 754-0240
           Amiga...  Because life is too short for boring computers.