From: phil osborn (philosborn@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Dec 26 1999 - 22:37:07 MST
>From: "Lee Daniel Crocker" <lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net (none)>
>Subject: Re: Patents [was Re: GPS implants are here... NOT...]
>Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 08:47:35 -0800 (PST)
>
> >> 1) I can go work as a contract programmer for some XYZ company
> >> programming whatever they would like to have programmed.
> >> 2) I can *invent* things that may contribute to the productivity
> >> of society, patent those inventions and have companies &
>organizations
> >> coming to me to license those inventions.
>
>So Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, Larry Wall, Eric Raymond (who's
>now worth about $30M BTW) and all the other successful software
>entrepreneurs who got that way by giving away their inventions don't
>really exist? Today, these folks may be the exception rather than
>the rule. But wouldn't a world where they were the rule be better?
>
>--
>Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
Just getting the patent is only the first part of the battle. You should
talk to Myron Krueger sometime. He developed about half of the VR related
technology used today, and everyone roundly ignores his patents, because
they know that for years he has yelled about everyone ripping him off but
has never taken the trouble to go to court.
On the other hand, Vivid Effects out of Toronto, one of the companies that
Myron accuses of violating his patent on VideoPlace - and it seems
incontrovertible that they have (I spent years covering this issue as a
freelance journalist.) - got a patent on a VideoPlace proportional device,
which would have been an obvious use of the technology to any software
engineer and which Myron believes is included in his original patent. (I
even vaguely recall suggesting such a software device around 1990 to one of
the principles at Vivid.)
But no one has challenged Vivid, and it appears that they have some
interesting connections now with deep pockets - Intel, in particular. So
they have probably gotten away with a patent on something obvious which will
probably be worth billions over the next ten years, while Myron struggles
along.
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