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From: ron@celerity.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Peace fullness.
Message-ID: <8610041553.AA24036@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: Tue, 30-Sep-86 17:55:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.8610041553.AA24036
Posted: Tue Sep 30 17:55:26 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Oct-86 03:42:51 EDT
References: <8609280050.AA11782@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: celerity!ron@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu (Ron McDaniels)
Organization: Celerity Computing, San Diego Ca
Lines: 50
Approved: tcp-ip@sri-nic.arpa

In article <8609280050.AA11782@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> BEAME@MCMASTER.BITNET writes:
>
>
>   Speeking as the president of one of those companies out there trying
>to make a living by selling TCP/IP code for PC's ...
>
>   As a developer it IS my responcibility to produce a product that my
>clients desire and to develop new features and approches.
>
>   I have done just that, but I am afraid to market it. Why ? Because the
>Universities will produce a public (or very cheap) version and have their
>name behind it! All my time, effort and MONEY will be wasted.
>
>   What can I do ? Get a Patent ? That takes years, and the protocols might
>have changed by than.
>
>   I ask you, what would you do if you wanted to sell such a product.
>(Remember were a very small company)
>
>              - Carl Beame,
>                President
>                Beame & Whiteside Software Ltd.
>                259 Fiddler's Green Rd.
>                Ancaster, Ontario, Canada.

There seems to be no way to avoid (for large or small companys) doing
market research before doing a product development. I don't even think
that patents would solve your problem. They certainly would work if you
were trying to protect an original invention, but anything that is in
the public domain as much as TCP/IP is, well, forget it.

A possible device you could use to market a product for which there is
competition in the public sector, is to do the job better than the
public version. Presumably, you are using designers and programmers
that are professional (not a wild-eyed bunch of unmanagable undergrads
;-) and you will provide support and subsequent product updates and
DOCUMENTATION that are frequently not available for public domain
software. An example of this strategy being sucessfully employed is the
Ingress DBMS.

I guess I do feel a little sorry for you, your tax dollars being used
to subsidize your competition and all. Kind of makes you want to go sell
real estate or something.


R. L. (Ron) McDaniels

CELERITY COMPUTING . 9692 Via Excelencia Way . San Diego, California . 92126
(619) 271-9940 . {decvax || ucbvax || ihnp4 || philabs}!sdcsvax!celerity!ron
"Yes, my Precious. . . we hates them socket(2)eses!"