Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!bud
From: bud@ut-emx.UUCP (C. E. Spurgeon)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Re: FDDI/Soderblum(?)
Message-ID: <13082@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 16 May 89 14:11:47 GMT
References: <8905151730.AA06800@vax.ftp.com>
Reply-To: bud@emx.UUCP (C. E. "Bud" Spurgeon)
Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 17

In article <8905151730.AA06800@vax.ftp.com> stev@VAX.FTP.COM writes: >
>the problem here is that this creates a precedence for him to
>collect.  "pay me, Froboz pays me, and so does Blaknatz. i'll sue,
>you know". then they pay, and pretty soon, everyone pays, because
>everyone else is paying. can you imagine a world where every ethernet
>board had a royality paid on it? or every RS232 port?  
>

Ethernet is patented.  Xerox has two patents on the system from 1975.
The IEEE802.3 specs note that "The Xerox Corporation has assured the
IEEE that it is willing to grant a license under these patents on
reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions to anyone
wishing to obtain such a license."

I assume Xerox decided to let the technology out without hassling
anyone for royalties.  I've never heard of someone getting an Ethernet
license from Xerox.  Does anyone bother to do so, one wonders?