🚀 go-pugleaf

>I believe in protection of innovation, and to some extent "look and feel" (I'm
>one of those seemingly few people who side with Apple in the Apple/Microsoft
>case), but some of this stuff in the article is pretty scary.  One person
>suggested there might even have to be a clearinghouse for patents, where
>programmers could check out whether a concept was patented or not.  Sheesh!

As a recent grantee of a software patent, I feel somewhat qualified to put my
oar in (OK, so I'm bragging). BTW, to a large degree, I also side with Apple
over Microsoft.

In my case, I work for a large corporation. They filed "my" patent for me, they
also claimed the rights by being the "assignee." This is a result of my having
legally agreed that any patents that developed as a result of work assignments
would be "owned" by Tektronix. If you work for a large place, you probably did
this too; the courts upheld the process several years ago. The result is that
my total benefit for my patents is a steak dinner, a plaque, and a warm hand-
shake from the president.

Patents, as used by the big boys, is a far cry from the idea of "protecting the
innovator." Companies regularly and as standard practice seem to knowingly
violate patents (though I have never seen this at Tektronix!). The idea seems
to be to collect patents more as a self-defense measure. If some guy comes for
you about violating his patent, you then examine his instruments carefully.
Chances are, "he" (being a big corporation) will be in violation of several of
your patents. You then come back defensively and say "if you sue me over this
patent, I'll sue you over this, and this, and this, and THAT!" You wouldn't
care about his violating your patents until he decides to get offensive.

The "his" and "you" above refer to large corporations.

About 20 years ago, Tektronix went through the hassle of proving patent viola-
tion. The US Air Force contracted with some companies to make exact copies of
a certain model of Tek oscilloscope. They copied it, right down to some extra
chassis holes that were left in the design but no longer used. I mean, the
copying was blatant.

It took Tektronix 18 years, millions of lawyer dollars, and enormous angst to
finish this out. Had the company been a little less naive, it would never have
started, and I doubt it would today, at least on that scale. (Disclaimer: I am
NOT in the Patents department here, and there has been some wind of their being
less tolerant of violations in the future nowadays.)

The point of it all? While patents are supposedly protection for the little
guy, the little guy is all but left out in the cold. Unless you can spend a lot
to protect yourself, you're out of luck. "Just how much justice can you AFFORD,
Mr. Inventor?"

-- 
-Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc.                (503) 627-3437         briand@tekig4.LEN.TEK.COM
P.O. Box 500, M/S 39-383
Beaverton, OR   97077                        (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)