Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!amdcad!rpw3
From: rpw3@amdcad.AMD.COM (Rob Warnock)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Re: FDDI/Soderblum(?)
Message-ID: <25666@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 17 May 89 20:12:04 GMT
References: <8905151730.AA06800@vax.ftp.com> <13082@ut-emx.UUCP>
Reply-To: rpw3@amdcad.UUCP (Rob Warnock)
Organization: [Consultant] San Mateo, CA
Lines: 46

In article <13082@ut-emx.UUCP> bud@emx.UUCP (C. E. "Bud" Spurgeon) writes:
+---------------
| Ethernet is patented.  Xerox has two patents on the system from 1975.
+---------------

Quite true. One is on collision detection (any form of CSMA/CD), and the
other is on repeaters which know about collision detection. Also note that
1975 + 17 = 1992. That is, they're still in force.

+---------------
| 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?
+---------------

Well, *honest* people did & do!  ;-}   After all, I would say the terms
are quite "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" -- a $1000 one-time license
fee per patent per manufacturer (i.e. $2000 total).

+---------------
| In article <8905151730.AA06800@vax.ftp.com> stev@VAX.FTP.COM writes: >
| >                   ...   can you imagine a world where every ethernet
| >board had a royality paid on it? or every RS232 port?  
+---------------

Yes, and Ethernet wouldn't have succeeded nearly as well. Thankfully,
Xerox wanted Etehrnet to succeed more than they wanted to grub a few
bucks. As a result, they probably sold a *lot* more Ethernet components
than they would if it had been more restricted.

Though note, at one point, the patent license fee for building *anything*
that sat on a DEC Unibus was $100 or 10% of retail (whichever was less)
*per copy*, that is, per board that plugged into a Unibus. The add-on
market grumbled, but paid. There was a thriving market in Unibus peripherals...


Rob Warnock
Systems Architecture Consultant

UUCP:	  {amdcad,fortune,sun}!redwood!rpw3
DDD:	  (415)572-2607
USPS:	  627 26th Ave, San Mateo, CA  94403