Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!oodis01!uplherc!esunix!bpendlet
From: bpendlet@esunix.UUCP (Bob Pendleton)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Split I and D caches and IBM lawyers
Message-ID: <931@esunix.UUCP>
Date: 4 Aug 88 14:17:17 GMT
References: <62555@sun.uucp>
Organization: Evans & Sutherland, Salt Lake City, Utah
Lines: 40

From article <62555@sun.uucp>, by dre%ember@Sun.COM (David Emberson):

> The idea of managing the contents of a cache memory under software control 
> sounds like something that is a fundamental, obvious idea to me.  I have no
> doubt that even this patent is well written.  

Yes, I can even remember discussing the idea in a undergraduate class.
We came to the conclusion that it wasn't a very good idea. This was 12
to 14 years ago.

> IBM has the money to afford the
> best legal talent in the country.  But the garage entrepreneurs don't, and
> that is my major point.  The present system stifles innovation and works to
> the benefit of the largest, most powerful, richest companies.  

Yes, and to the benefit of small organizations and individuals with
truely new ideas.

> The patent system was intended to protect inventors, not monopolies.

This statement contradicts my basic understanding of the patent
system. As I understand it, the idea was to give the inventor a
limited monopoly on the use of a technique, plant or animal, in
exchange for releasing a complete description of the technique...

The goal is to stimulate innovation and protect society from loss
of knowledge by giving the inventors a reason to publish information they
might otherwise wish to keep as trade secrets.

It is my understanding that the patent system was intended to benefit
society by granting monopolies to inventors. I've been told, by a
patent lawyer, that the fact that patents are very difficult to
enforce has PREVENTED large investments in research because you can't
count on making any money from it.

			Bob P.
-- 
Bob Pendleton @ Evans & Sutherland
UUCP Address:  {decvax,ucbvax,allegra}!decwrl!esunix!bpendlet
Alternate:     utah-cs!esunix!bpendlet
        I am solely responsible for what I say.