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Craig White
plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
Wed, 29 Aug 2001 09:32:53 -0700
Digital Wokan wrote:
>
> Doesn't a patent holder have to respond in a reasonable amount of time
> to patent infringements? I can't believe MS isn't aware of .gnu and
> mono.
>
----------
Yes, there is a need to enforce your patents once you have determined
that someone has infringed. If you do not assert your rights to property
when you know your rights have been infringed, you cannot go back later
and assert those rights. The concepts in the articles are that Microsoft
is acquiring patents by acquiring companies that own these patents and
thus, this would be new property for Microsoft. There is a lot of gray
area around all of this though.
The scariest thing about this is that Micrsoft has such deep pockets and
the open source identities will not have the money to defend these suits
or even worse, it will drain off the monies from companies such as IBM,
RedHat etc. that would be much better spent in other directions.
Craig