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

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Good grief, enough of the pissing wars already!

FWIW, one or more of the AS/400 trade rag email newsletters reports this
every year.  IBM has received more patents than any other entity.

Sorry I didn't keep a copy of that newsletter for proof.  Is this really
a topic we need to hear fighting about on this list?  I didn't think so.

O.K., found an old article dated March 1995 in the AS400 Network:
IBM Ranks First Again in U.S. Patents Awarded
For the second year in a row, IBM has ranked first in the number of
patents awarded by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. In 1994, IBM
received 1,298 U.S. patents -- 199 more than second-place Canon KK. The
IBM patents were almost exclusively in the field of information
processing, and IBM continued to lead in patenting software-related
inventions. Among the key patents granted were those for a method of
encrypting and decrypting various software products on a CD-ROM,
processes for the transmission of multimedia data over a network, and a
technique for producing a high- quality, improved semiconductor
material, silicon-germanium, that will allow the production of
"superfast" transistors.

So, yes, this was awhile ago, but I know I've seen this type of news
regularly over the past several years.

A more generic search on AS400 Network turned up:
FEBRUARY 02, 2001 - We know IBM earned more than 2,500 U.S. patents last
year, ...

Sharon Hoffman reported:

On January 11, 2000, IFI Claims Patent Services, which compiles a patent
database, reported that IBM had been awarded more U.S. patents than any
other company in 1999. This is the seventh consecutive year that IBM led
the patent race. More than 900 of IBM's 2,756 patents for 1999 are
software-related.

Can we please end this particular "patent" thread?  Please.

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952
D.Bale@Handleman.com
  Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
  (Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)

-------------------------- Original Message --------------------------

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Rehm [SMTP:javadisciple@earthlink.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2001 2:44 AM
> To:   midrange-l@midrange.com
> Subject:      Re: open source. was Closed system (was: PC connection
> via twinax ?)
>
> In other words, "It must be true, I read it on the internet!"
>
> You have no real facts to support your statement. Your statement lacks
> logical credibility. Even if patenting an idea to prevent its use is a
> valid plan, that does not at all support your statement of "most
> patents
> are filed..." for such a purpose. Nor do you seem to have any
> supporting
> information that _any_ patents were filed for such a purpose.
>
> When you have enough substantiating information, you could post, "One
> patent was filed to ..." and then after that it could grow to "Some
> patents..." and from there.
>
> Leif Svalgaard wrote:
>
> >From: Chris Rehm <javadisciple@earthlink.net>
> >Leif Svalgaard wrote:
> >
> >>most patents are filed to prevent anybody from using the idea, even
> >>
> >>Most? What is the percentage? Where do you get this statistic? What
> >>evidence do you have that this happens with any regularity, let
> alone
> >>that "most" of patent filings are in this category?
> >
> >Chris,
> >There are lots and lots of basic information on why patents and
> >when/what to patent available on the web; try google and you'll
> >see.
> >
>
> --
> Chris Rehm
> javadisciple@earthlink.net
> If you believe that the best technology wins the
> marketplace, you haven't been paying attention.