Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!samsung!olivea!mintaka!ai-lab!life.ai.mit.edu!petrilli From: petrilli@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Chris Petrilli) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems Subject: Re: hayes lawsuit Message-ID: Date: 24 May 91 04:52:53 GMT References: <4913@orbit.cts.com> <9BDBC58@xds13.ferranti.com> <1991May17.222410.26944@MDI.COM> <1991May24.035016.13723@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Followup-To: comp.dcom.modems Organization: The Free Software Foundation Lines: 46 In-reply-to: jsharp@isis.cs.du.edu's message of 24 May 91 03:50:16 GMT Joe Sharp writes: [... asks questions as to the status of lawsuit ...] In comp.dcom.telecoms, the guy from Hayes is claiming that a lot of companies are now lining up to license the +++ 'technology'. Is this true? I'm not familiar with the actual details of the case, but the Hayes press release seem to indicate that the Judge threw the book at Everex et al. Did they really have such a bad case? or did they just get a non technical judge who may not fully understand the complexity, simplicity, or possible non-validity of the patent? I have been off UseNet for a couple days (IBM RS/6000 died around here), but if previous lawsuits on 'look-and-feel' are any indication, the judge will (or has) thrown the book at them. The current status of the legal system has become so absurd that it isn't even funny any more (not that is was for very long, mind you). I have just about decided to produce a 1-2-3 clone with a Mac front end and give it to everyone. This continued L&F lawsuit happy world must stop... the FSF is threatened, as is the rest ofthe world. I was once told that the FSF threatened the free-world because we give away software, but I am quite convinced that if anything ,we are the saviours of the FREE-world. If Lotus, Hayes, MS, Apple and IBM all had their way (Xerox is in here too), you would have to license the right to live, as they would own the patent to life. This may seem absurd, but is it? Think about it... life is patentable, so what is stopping someone from doing it... seems prior knowledge and the fact that you had nothing to do with the creation of the idea is no longer necessary for a patent (see the claim of AT&T on backing-store which was created at Stanford and SRI, then at MIT, AT&T never really had anything to do with it.) If Mike Godwin is out there, please comment. Also, does anyone know if the LPF is getting involved in this case? I need to know... I'm a member, but haven't heard anything about it. Joe Sharp jsharp@isis.cs.du.edu Chris -- | Chris Petrilli | petrilli@gnu.ai.mit.edu | I don't even speak for myself.