🚀 go-pugleaf

> > I hate to tell you folks, but Andy Bechtolsheim here at Sun has a patent 
> > (applied for and granted) on using the untranslated addresses as the 
> > RAS addresses and doing the MMU address translation before the column 
> > addresses are needed for CAS.  Sooner or later, it's going to cost some
> > competitors a WHOLE lot of money.
> 
> How the hell can the patent office grant patents like this?  ...
> ... the idea is too obvious.

The patent office is not omniscient, and the idea certainly wasn't as
widely known five years ago as it is today.  It's fairly likely that
*somebody* *somewhere* had the idea earlier, and can prove it -- for
example, I'm fairly sure at least one blurb for some early MMU chip
mentioned the notion -- but it's asking a bit much to expect the Patent
Office to know this.

Ignoring for the moment the question of whether Andy's then-current
employer has some say in the matter, what will happen is that Andy will
be able to go out and ask assorted competitors for royalties.  There's
a fair chance that most of them will pay rather than fight, if he's
reasonable about amounts.  If he's not, or if somebody decides to balk,
there will be a court battle, which Andy probably will lose.  The idea
is too simple; my guess would be that a vigorous literature search will
turn up either prior publication of the idea or something close enough
to make the final step "obvious to one skilled in the art", either of
which invalidates the patent.  In recent years, as I recall, most court
challenges to patents have succeeded:  it's too hard to come up with
something that is really and totally new.  Andy's best tactic would be
to ask for a modest royalty that's not worth fighting.  The chances of
successfully gouging someone for a "WHOLE lot" of money aren't good
unless he deliberately picks an ailing victim who can't afford a fight.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry