|
Patent expert Harold Wagner, in of his invaluable emails on patent issues, observes:
Since IBM virtually never sues for patent infringement and since the company has so much at stake in maintaining its billions of dollars of nonexclusive royalty income through the myriad licenses it grants throughout the relevant industries, it would be an earthshaking development, indeed, if IBM had not researched its case to the nth degree and was extremely confident of success: The obvious purpose of this particular lawsuit is to demonstrate to any potentially reluctant licensee that IBM does mean business and will enforce its patents. The internal discussions over patents within IBM must be highly entertaining, since part of the the company seems to be dedicated to harvesting the value of its patents and part dedicated to FOSS as a socioreligious movement. Maybe its like ancient Rome, where the two consuls alternated executive power every month.
posted by James DeLong @ 8:13 AM | Patents
Link to this Entry |
Printer-Friendly |
Email a Comment | Post a Comment(0)
|
