Curt Welch wrote:
(...)

It's hard to evaluate all the costs, but patents are
looking questionable to me.

All a patent does is give one the right to sue an infringer.
It doesn't supply the team of lawyers or the awe-inspiring
bankroll or the decades of time necessary to mount a credible
challenge to a large corporation.

In my limited experience, large companies simply infringe
with impunity. Everyone in the legal community is well aware
who owns them so paying a lawyer for such is just an exercise
in futility.

I don't know which planet is structured so that the intellectual
property claimed by individuals is honored by *any* group.
It ain't this one.

Robert Kearns was fortunate to live in a kinder, simpler age
before large corporations changed their business model to
resemble that of La Cosa Nostra. Once upon a time, companies
actually were concerned about their public image.

Now you can tell where the loyal opposition used to be.

Just look for the smoking hole.


--Winston