Re: (TFT) TFT TM

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 09:36:48 -0600
"Craig W. Barber" <craigwbar@comcast.net> wrote:
>     I caught that line about "not IP lawyers!"  ;)

LOL - no offense meant!  I'm a bit soured on some of them from seeing
various cases where dubious software patents are bought by a company which
then turns around and asks for large damages or licensing fees based on those
patents.  In many cases they go after smaller companies that can't really
afford to litigate the case and either roll over or go under, though if the
company being sued has the resources, the patent will undergo closer scrutiny
than the USPTO originally gave it (often, hardly any) and be declared
invalid.

Then there are the weasels at SCO who claim they own Unix and that Linux
violates their IP.  Originally, they claimed there were over a million lines
of Unix source code which they owned in Linux, but in reality they haven't
offered a single example publically that hadn't already been published by
AT&T, or was not part of the published POSIX specification for Unix-like
system conformance.  Their claims are vanishing like puddle on a sunny day.

Enough off-topic rambling, more on that is at http://groklaw.net/

>     Q: has anyone directly asked the folks (aka you guys) at DCG if they (you)
> plan to use their rights to protect the TFT fan community and get TFT out
> there into the stores?

Not that I know of.

>     Q: what was the "recent" incident in which HT expressed complete
> disinterest in TFT?  I was looking through the archives the other day and
> noted a comment to that effect.  Has HT been located?

I got email some years back from someone who claimed he was Howard Thompson's
son, and all the investigating I did based on the sender's domain and other
information led me to believe he was legit.  He said that HT wasn't really
interested in selling any of the rights he held to TFT, but that if someone
waved a large enough check in front of him, he'd sell.  The amount of the
check was not given, and HT didn't want to haggle about a price.

I believe more work was done by another legal eagle on the list, Ty Beard,
who got closer than I did to unravelling the mystery, but I don't think his
efforts ended in success.  Ty may choose to expound if he wishes.

>     PS Please don't disenroll me from the list!  Lawyers, like other forms of
> slime, are a necessary part of the ecology!

I have no intention of unsubbing any lawyers!!  And it's a good thing we
have more than one, otherwise we'd be unable to have an argument ;)

The issue of the TFT copyrights has made for interesting discussions over
the past 8 years, but I'm convinced we'll never them transferred.

-- 
======================================================================
       Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh@brainiac.com
Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
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