thanks for your insights, John (Clark) and Mike L.
john noted that
>>>Even with all their patents I can't build a router as good as
>>>Cisco's and
>>>sell it at 1% of their price.
to which i replied
>>But Lucent can
and john said
>No, I don't believe that they can.
further noting that
>not long ago Lucent filed a big lawsuit against Cisco for violating
>their patents.
I am tempted to say case closed, by some subscribers might simply say that reflects the state of my intellect ;-)
all the best,
tim