[YBA] i4i vs MS?

[Danny Lieberman]

Geoff

Let's not mix the FOSS movement, politics, emotion or opinion with
economics.


The simple economics are that for the entire software industry - the cost of
software patents far outweighs the economic benefit unlike the
pharmaceutical industry.

The cost == cost of writing, issuing, enforcing
The benefit == increased revenue to the company


d



On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 1:38 PM, geoffrey mendelson <
geoffreymendelson at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Aug 13, 2009, at 1:14 PM, Shachar Shemesh wrote:
>
>  Where has Microsoft's junk patents given them any money? Unless they are
>> using extortion (possible) to quietly threaten potential FOSS defecties
>> away, that is. They are not selling those, and they have never sued anyone
>> (well, one). It also seems that not many are taking their threats too
>> seriously - we did not exactly see the FOSS world grind to a halt, after
>> all.
>>
>> If they are not making much money off their silly patents, and they are
>> losing, then their loses outweight their gains.
>>
>
>
>
> Or in plain English, you can't.
>
> From the USPTO website:
>
>        Searching US Patent Collection...
>
>        Results of Search in US Patent Collection db for:
>        AN/microsoft: 12062 patents.
>
>
> You are claiming that with 12062 patents since 1976 assigned to Microsoft,
> the ones that are software related have netted them a total of zero or lost
> them money.
>
> Your are also discounting the the fact that people did not compete due to
> patent protection which may be in the end more valuable than licensing fees.
>
> You are also went from claiming software patents to "junk patents". Define
> "junk patent" and explain how the term applies to all, as you did, software
> patents.
>
> The FOSS world exists not because of there are no software patents, it
> exists because people have dedicated their work to the public domain, which
> is a very different thing. IBM has dedicated many of their patents to the
> public domain because they are a hardware marketing company, and as the old
> IBM addage says "nothing sells hardware better and faster than software".
>
>
>
>
> Geoff.
>
> --
> geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
> Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com
>
>
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>



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