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Re: Xybernaut Files Patent Infringement Action Against Teltronics

From: "R. Paul McCarty" <>
Date: Thu, 10 Jun 1999 13:48:40 +0000

Tony Havelka wrote:
> 
> http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/990609/va_xyberna_1.html
> 
> Can this type of action help or hurt our industry?

Does anyone know more about the specific patents in question? The
article just says "U.S. Patents 5,844,824 and 5,305,244".

with regards to hurting or helping, I think it does neither, it just
wastes people time and resources in court.

I agree with you Tim, the US patent office has been giving out patents
for the most vague and general technologies lately:

suit against mp3.com for having downloadable music:
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/05/17/1244255&mode=thread
suit against MS for multithreading:
  http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/10251.html

I can think of several others.

But (thankfully) they are also being dimissed in court as it becomes
obvious that these are too widespread and common practice to be
copyrighted. It's also unlikely someone like Xybernaut or IBM will go
after researchers or any non-commercial developers such as most of the
people on this list. Hopefully. :)

-Paul
-- 
R. Paul McCarty /  / x52059
317 Lattimore Hall, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627
Computers don't make errors; what they do, they do on purpose.-Dale/KOTH

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