Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!jesup
From: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Split I and D caches and IBM lawyers
Message-ID: <4423@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 5 Aug 88 03:07:56 GMT
References: <62370@sun.uucp> <15086@apple.Apple.COM> <62555@sun.uucp> <15129@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: jesup@cbmvax.UUCP (Randell Jesup)
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 37

In article <15129@apple.Apple.COM> baum@apple.UUCP (Allen Baum) writes:
>It is, unfortunately, a fact of life that big companies have more resources
>that they can devote to coming up with new ways of doing things. Patent law
>does not penalize big companies because they have this advantage. It does not
>completely stifle innovation, or small companies, or I wouldn't be working
>here! These ideas would be patentable even if a garage shop came up with them.
>They are not patentable merely because a big company paid smart lawyers lots
>of money to write the patent disclosure.

	Apple's success hasn't depended very much on patents.

	The way patents work nowadays does greatly benefit large companies.
It is not uncommon for an individual or small company to be granted a patent,
than have the big companies either use it without paying, or to pay their
lawyers to "break" the patent, using their much bigger resources to try to
prove the patent shouldn't have been granted.  The patent searches done
by the patent office often miss things: this causes much more grief for
individuals than big companies, since the individual assumes that since
he got the patent, it can't be taken away.

	If an individual tries to sue even medium sized companies that
have used his patent without paying, it can take 10 or more years to get
compensation, if ever.  Many people with patents have been driven into
bankruptcy trying to defend their patent (and few law firms will defend
patents on contingency).

	Of course, this isn't limited to just patents, though it may be worst
there.  Copyright law also suffers from "justice is for those with the
most money" tendency of our civil laws.  Witness the Lotus, Apple, and
a number of other cases (and those are just the most visible).

	Lets not go too deep into this, or if you want to, move discussion
to comp.misc.  The whole copyright thing has been hashed out too many
times.  Let's stick to patents, or better yet (gasp) architectures.

-- 
Randell Jesup, Commodore Engineering {uunet|rutgers|allegra}!cbmvax!jesup