Re: Gates Patents Flipping a Light Switch

[T . Max Devlin]

On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 08:20:41 +0000 (UTC), NOSPAMdave@sebastian9.com
wrote:

>According to Stefaan A Eeckels  <tengo@DELETEMEecc.lu>:
>> On Sat, 15 May 2004 16:59:08 -0400
>> Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> > Are you expecting the laws to be applied differently for different 
>> > companies?  Patents are something that anyone can take advantage of.  
>> > Little guys can use them to keep big guys from walking all over them.  
>> > Big guys use them as a way to stay big.
>> 
>> Little guys might not be able to afford patents. 
>> Does anyone have an idea how much it costs to get
>> a software invention patented?
>
>I attended a talk the other day on patents by the former
>corporate counsel of a software company.  He mentioned
>a range of $7K-$60K to get each patent, but noted that
>it was probably going to cost at least $500K to fight or
>defend a patent in court.  That's the more significant
>obstacle, but it also works both ways.  While it's a
>significant obstacle for the little guy trying to defend
>against a charge of infringement, even Bill Gates can't
>afford to spend $500K swatting every fly that comes along.
>
>So a lot of innocent non-willful infringement is likely
>to slip by under the radar.  People are only likely
>to go to court over a patent if one side or the other
>thinks they have millions at stake.
>
>-- 
>Dave Wallace           (Remove NOSPAM from my address to email me)
>It is quite humbling to realize that the storage occupied by the longest
>line from a typical Usenet posting is sufficient to provide a state space
>so vast that all the computation power in the world can not conquer it.

Is your sig a quote, and if so, who is it?