Re: open source. was Closed system (was: PC connection via twinax ?)

Jeff,

The last I heard, IBM files more patents each year then just about any
other company on earth.

The purpose of a patent is to announce your idea -and- protect it from
anyone else using it.  The life of a patent is much longer than the life
of a computer.  Sure, let's just jump on the band wagon to capitalize on
a 17 year old technology ;-)

jeff_carey@baxter.com wrote:
>
> Actually, much of IBM's innovation is probably not patented - if you
> patent something, you have to publish full details of it's workings.
> What's more, after the patent expires anyone can make it.    This is the
> reason you'll never find a patent for the formula for Coca-cola, for
> example.  And yes, if you could figure out the recipe, you could legally
> make your own version of Coca-cola (of course you couldn't call it that!)
>
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