Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!labrea!polya!cayuga!andy
From: andy@cayuga.Stanford.EDU (Andy Freeman)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: The Sun RAS/CAS patent (was: Some 1987 patents of interest)
Keywords: Patents
Message-ID: <4286@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 5 Oct 88 16:57:57 GMT
References: <5511@hoptoad.uucp> <16406@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <352@laic.UUCP> <1663@sbcs.sunysb.edu>
Sender: news@polya.Stanford.EDU
Reply-To: andy@cayuga.Stanford.EDU (Andy Freeman)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 17

In article <1663@sbcs.sunysb.edu> root@sbcs.sunysb.edu (root) writes:
>	Yes.  I look at it from this perspective: patents create an unfair
>	monopoly (on sometimes trivial ideas, eg the Sun MMU Ras/Cas
>	timing).

I've heard that the idea was actually used in products before Andy B.
claims to have invented it.  (The patent office only quibbles over
whether the idea is protectable by patents - they make no guarantees
of priority and rely on court cases to establish it.)  Does anyone pay
royalties on this patent?

If not, that patent is merely a nice piece of paper on Andy B's wall.

-andy
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