[Coco] Re: JPEG

[James Ross]

Roger Taylor wrote:

>James Ross wrote:
>>I hope you are joking :) I don't know of any inventor that would come
>>up with something really cool, patent it, and just wait around and
>>count how many people steal it and make dollars with it, unless the
>>plan was for the lawsuit to begin with.  

>Nope, it's not a joke.  I'm convinced that there are hundreds, if not, 
>thousands of patent holders who do wait around and see how many people will 
>steal it before their lawsuit will be worth the hassle.

No doubt that many companies patent anything and everything that the
office will let them
 just in case it is a good idea. Most of them are
probably not.  If they were they would be making money on it and
protecting their patent dutifully. Only a lazy fat cat would wait
around for years and years to make money by a lawsuit with a good idea
that they own.  I think this rare. You think there are thousands.  I
doubt it.  

More than likely in the beginning of the jpeg & gif saga, they were
freely making the specs available with example code and such so that
the format would become popular and they could make a few bucks of
their product that used the format. Probably few strings attached, no
signed licenses and such.  Now all the sudden, years later, aha, we
could make a lot more money my suing than actually working!  What a
concept!  

JR