mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) (04/07/90)
As expected, Hitachi has filed a motion asking the court to vacate the stay. Hitachi asks that, at most, the stay be for two weeks, rather than until the appeal, so that there will be pressure on Moto to settle. Hearings are scheduled for next week. Stock up on 030s now! Michael Slater, Microprocessor Report mslater@cup.portal.com
brian@natinst.com (Brian H. Powell) (04/09/90)
Judge Lucius Bunton is well-known for disliking lawyers. Hitachi bought
some local, well-respected lawyers (Graves & Daugherty). Motorola, as I
understand it, brought down some Chicago (you have to say that with a certain
Texas-drawl disdain) and also some Dallas (you have to say that with a certain
Austin-drawl disdain) lawyers. Strike One.
Judge Bunton especially dislikes unorganized lawyers. You may only
approach the bench once when requested; you can't go back to get some papers
on your desk. Let's just say that one of those Dallas lawyers had to lean
real far back so that a colleague could hand him a paper he forgot. Strike
Two.
Judge Bunton especially dislikes bickering lawyers. Rumor has it that
once (a different case; it's probably happened more than once) when the
lawyers were arguing among themselves that Judge Bunton pulls out a doll,
slowly rips its appendages off and proclaims "I hate lawyers". Since Hitachi
and Motorola should have settled this some time ago, and since those lawyers
were really not getting along too well toward a settlement: Strike Three.
My impression is that Motorola feels now that their (now former) lawyers
really blew it; they should have settled for $8 million. But now Hitachi
realizes that they can get more than that, so we'll have to see.
I also heard that after the case was over, Motorola found some prior art
that would have improved (if not proved) their case. Too bad they can't use
it in an appeal.
>Stock up on 030s now!
Funny thing. After the injunction was stayed, Motorola shipped every
single '030 that was ready to go. Even some untested ones.
Oh yeah, another thing about Judge Bunton. He ruled that the current
methods of distributing state funds to school districts in Texas is
unconstitutional. He essentially pulled the same trick on the legislature as
he did on Motorola/Hitachi; he will impose a highly unpopular plan, just to
put pressure on the legislature to make a decision to correct it.
The opinions herein are my own. Nothing here is the opinion of Motorola
or National Instruments.
Brian H. Powell, M/S 56-14 National Instruments Corp.
brian@natinst.com 6504 Bridge Point Parkway
uunet!cs.utexas.edu!natinst!brian Austin, Texas 78730-5039
AppleLink:NATINST (512) 338-9119