bschwart@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Computers are toys) (12/17/89)
Has anyone ever noticed how much a GM looks and feels like a Ford? There's the makings of a big lawsuit there . . . If GM comes out with a new kind of airbag, does that mean Ford can't use anything like it? If SoftShop comes out with a new means of making sure computer operators do not make horrible errors, does that mean FirmWarehouse can't come out with something similar? Who has the right to withhold The Answer? No one. -- Barry Schwartz, Chief SAPsucker bbs@cdspr.rutgers.edu Grad Student, Dept. of Elec. and Comp. Engg. bschwart@elbereth.rutgers.edu Rutgers University College of Engg. bbs@hankel.rutgers.edu Piscataway, NJ 08854 U.S.A. rutgers!cdspr!bbs
cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) (12/27/89)
bschwart@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Computers are toys) writes:
"}"Has anyone ever noticed how much a GM looks and feels
"}"like a Ford? There's the makings of a big lawsuit there . . .
If someone can claim to have originated that, perhaps... I think that
when they come up with specific real innovations they can, and DO,
patent them [e.g., such randomnesses as different kinds of built-in
alarm sensors, on-the-steering-wheel-hub shifters, antilock brakes,
etc] and if you want to put that in YOUR car, you have to license the
stuff from whoever developed it.
"}"If GM comes out with a new kind of airbag, does that mean
"}"Ford can't use anything like it?
Almost certainly. If someone managed a new design for the air bag
itself, or its housing, or its trigger, or its inflator, you can bet it
would be patented and Ford would either have to invent their own or
license GM's.
"}"If SoftShop comes out with a new means of making sure computer
"}"operators do not make horrible errors, does that mean
"}"FirmWarehouse can't come out with something similar?
Depends on what you mean by a "new means". If it is something like
that they designed a new keyboard layout and [after suitable
development and testing] showed it to, in fact, be superior to the 'old
way', or rethought and restudied a whole mode-of-operation and invented
an overwhelmingly more effective one, I suspect that if you wanted to
use their stuff you'd better be prepared to license it from the folks
that originated it and developed it.
"}"Who has the right to withhold The Answer?
"}"No one.
Poo. The most vocal folks bleating this chant, as has been thrashed to
death time and time again in this newsgroup, are the people LOOKING for
Answers. It is almost always code words for "tell me YOUR answers, and
too bad if it cost you a lot of upfront time and hassle and expense to
find them". If *YOU* want to spend a couple of years working up
something really worthwhile and useful, and then *YOU* want to give it
away, more power to you!
And moreover, leaving religious matters aside, there ain't any "the"
answeres, anyway, so go find your own.
/Bernie\