Subject: [TS] Re: best usage vs. ownership
From: Ben Darnell (bgdarnel@unity.ncsu.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 15 2000 - 18:10:11 EST
Andrius Kulikauskas wrote:
>
> Hi Michael,
> Thanks for your letter.
> You've stirred up a lot of excitement, which I admire. The subject
> you raise is good to be aware of, and you're welcome to raise it at our
> discussion group minciu_sodas_en@egroups.com which is free for all to
> join.
> I haven't seen the patent that you refer to. It would be good if you
> could send it to me, or point me to it.
The text of the patent is at http://thoughtstream.org/patent.txt
You can find the images from the patent by searching for "natrificial"
at http://www.patents.ibm.com
> We're a forum for getting things done that advance caring about
> thinking. It's so hard to get things done. TheBrain has done, and is
> doing, so much. I'm willing to help others - like Thoughtstream - get
> things done. I don't have any energy to get in the way of very busy
> people doing their work, especially people working with us.
I agree that our goals should be positive rather than negative, but it
appears that Natrificial/TheBrain has not gotten much done recently, and
have gone to great effort to prevent others from getting things done.
> The US judicial system has an idea I like a lot. They don't judge
> hypotheticals, only real cases. There can be lots of problems with the
> laws, but the courts don't care until there is a real life case that
> involves them. It turns out that most problems with laws aren't
> problems as far as real life is concerned.
I agree that if this patent is never used in a lawsuit, then it's not
worth wasting time over. Many companies hold patents for defensive
purposes, for cross-licensing in the event of a patent dispute. While
this is a perversion of the original intent of the patent system, the
practice is so firmly entrenched that I don't think anything less than a
Supreme Court decision can stop it. However, since their explicit goal
is to create "a significant barrier to entry", it appears that their
goals are not merely defensive. We must combat this threat while it is
still hypothetical, because the sad truth is that to actually try a case
in court is very expensive, in both time and money.
Food for thought: Your idea for an "interactive multiconverter" with
integrated editor, as you described it to me, would infringe on this
patent. Have you discussed the full extent of your goals for this
project with The Brain? I ask this because the editing nature of this
application is not apparent from http://www.ms.lt/importexport.html .
It is possible that TheBrain would view this editor/converter as a
competitor.
-Ben
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