-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Kirk Wolf
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 6:00 PM
To: IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: Legal Issues with WEB

I'm not familiar with the specific patents in question, but it should be
obvious by now that nearly all software patents are either stupid,
obvious
or both.   Big companies that hold huge portfolios of these stupid
things
trade them with other big companies to the net effect of building legal
barriers that prevent small companies from building and selling
software.
The end consumer pays more for crappy software while the lawyers clean
up.

Google your favorite software company and read some of their ridiculous
patents for yourself.
Here's a stupid one:  http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6981278.html
<SNIP>

I was involved in defending against a patent that had been granted --
the patent appeared to me to violate an existing patent, and what it
claimed I could demonstrate that NETVIEW had been doing for years.

The problem with these things are, once granted, the owner is presumed
righteous and all costs to quash it are born by the challenger. It then
becomes a form of legal extortion.

Regards,
Steve Thompson

-- All opinions expressed by me are my own and may not necessarily
reflect those of my employer. --

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