Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!apple!motcsd!hpda!hpcuhb!hpindda!lyle
From: lyle@hpindda.HP.COM (Lyle Weiman)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: FDDI/Soderblom answer
Message-ID: <6200022@hpindda.HP.COM>
Date: 19 May 89 03:52:41 GMT
References: <kYOV3l200UoJQ0hGEQ@andrew.cmu.edu>
Organization: HP Information Networks, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 14

The response which the IEEE 802 committee got from these guys was
(this is my recollection and interpretation) that the original patent
rights had been sold to some sort of holding company, which obtains
revenues from the royalties.  They engaged the services of a lawyer,
by the way, who easily handled the collective umbrage of over a hundred
engineers (I think maybe the talent to do that goes with the territory,
or something).  In any case, over the years the stories that I have
heard was that this company would fight very hard in court to defend
this patent.   I didn't get the impression that the motivation was
at all altruistic.

(the opinions expressed above are solely mine)

--lyle