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Dutch Firm Says Dell Motherboards Violate Its Patent

Posted by timothy on from the professional-stunt-lawyers-on-closed-track dept.

Call Me Black Cloud writes "This article (also here) briefly discusses a suit against Dell for royalties on US patent 5,594,621. This patent, titled "Motherboard for a computer of the AT type, and a computer of the AT type comprising such motherboard", concerns the layout of ISA and PCI cards on a motherboard. Tulip Computers International somehow managed to convince the USPTO that its arrangement of cards on a mobo was worthy of a patent. Fearing the orderly arrangement of my sock drawer was infringing on a patent, I was relieved to discover only a patent for a magnetic sock holder, which solves the "well known problem associated with everyday laundering...the disarray that can occur with paired items of clothing such as socks"

38 comments

  1. Well.... by zulux · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dutch Firm Says Dell Motherboards Violate Its Patent

    We'll ae least The Firm Dutch Are't Patently Violating Dell's Mother.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

    1. Re:Well.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      . . . with a board :-)

    2. Re:Well.... by jmt9581 · · Score: 1

      Make that "The Firm Dutch Aren't Patently Violating Dell's Mother with a Board."

      :P

      --

      My blog

  2. The Dutch? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If there're two things I hate, they're people who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch.

  3. Patent on ebay? by spakatak · · Score: 1, Funny

    Isn't this the Patent that was sold on ebay a few years back?

  4. Not even cnet... by OneBarG · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ...can do a story without mentioning SCO?
    SCO Group has claimed that IBM and other companies owe it billions in damages for allegedly lifting some of its proprietary Unix intellectual property and incorporating it into Linux.
    No wonder it's infested virtually every /. posting.
    --
    I'm starting to think this isn't the best place to promote my Anti-Sig Campaign.
  5. Patents galore by Izanagi · · Score: 0, Redundant

    OMG, the third patent issue on /. today!
    What's this world coming to?

    --
    SCO (noun.)- A Slimy Corporate Ogre. Often seeks free money.
  6. Magnetic sock holder? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    My socks have no problem sticking together ... or to the floor, the wall, or the side of the laundry bin.

  7. AT ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    is dell still selling AT computers ? I thought we all switched to ATX long time ago...

    1. Re:AT ? by Yottabyte84 · · Score: 5, Informative

      is dell still selling AT computers ?

      Nope. But they don't claim Dell's ATX computers infringe. They claim that has Dell's Optiplex PCs circa 1997 infringed. The suit was filed in 2000, and is just now going to trial.

    2. Re:AT ? by jon787 · · Score: 1

      My optiplex gxa (from around 1997) was NOT an AT style mobo/case. I think it was NLX.

      --
      X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
    3. Re:AT ? by operagost · · Score: 1

      Yup, they have the NLX riser with several PCI/ISA slots. AGP video is integrated on the mother board.

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
  8. countersuit by vsync64 · · Score: 1

    Dell should do some shady backroom deals and convince HP to sue them for trademark violation by using the word "Tulip" in connection with computers.

    --
    TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
    1. Re:countersuit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well you'll also have to sue the people who made the tulip.o Linux driver for my network card.

  9. I've worked inside an OptiPlex or two... by DocSbaitso · · Score: 2, Informative

    And trust me, the layout isn't that much more efficient!

    --
    Hello, my name is Doctor Sbaitso. I am here to help you.
  10. apologies in advance by The+Clockwork+Troll · · Score: 1

    So Dell tiptoed ... through Tulip's ... AT?

    --

    There are no karma whores, only moderation johns
  11. Irrelevant but.. by floydman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did any body count the number of patent issues listed on /. today. :

    1) The one you are reading

    2) SCO vs Linux (ofcorse, this is the daily speical)

    3) Chip Firm Hit By 45-Year-Old Patent

    4) Nextel Claims Trademarks On "Push To Talk" and "PTT"

    And yet more to come through the day..

    What is this world comming to, is the whole planet gonna be owned by a bunch of people? I think this is something we should be aware of, you cannot work on a single project now (even for your own pleasure), without VIOLATING one of the patents without you ever noticing.. THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM...

    --
    The lunatic is in my head
    1. Re:Irrelevant but.. by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What is this world comming to, is the whole planet gonna be owned by a bunch of people?

      The world itself already does have everything allocated to some "owner". Just try to go out and find something you can legally just claim. Hell, even try to visit the North Pole, supposedly not owned by any country, yet "restricted" from any visitors (by whom, one may well ask?). Let me know if you make it within even half a degree without a representative of some military (of a government which clearly has no jurisdiction there, by international treaty) ventilating your corpse.

      The problem at hand deals with something far more insidious than mere physical ownership - Namely, someone may already "own" your very thoughts and ideas.

      You don't even need to have signed them away (ie, to your employer), or ever have heard of the "owned" idea or anything related to it. Your parents may have raised you in complete isolation on an island in the South Pacific, yet if you have a particular idea and try to make use of it, someone can sue you into oblivion for that idea.

      Life sucks, eh? Well, get ready for it to suck even more, since apparently the sheeple of Earth haven't yet suffered enough at the hands of their Corporate Masters to revolt. 100 hour work weeks won't do it, as long as people can eat. Lack of even appreciation or a heart-felt "thanks" for people literally sacrificing their bodies and souls to their Corporate Masters won't do it. Not until it all comes crashing down, until we realize that we can't "eat" a litigation/service economy, will people insist on change.

      But eventually, they will. And "pretty" will not describe the situation.

      And if you think I overdramatize the situation, how many unpaid hours did you work last week? Assuming, of course, you had the "luxury" of working, not having recently found your supposedly "unneeded" position curiously occupied by two H1B's or "interns" for a total of 2/3rds of your former salary.

      Livin' the American dream. Can I wake up, now? Please?

    2. Re:Irrelevant but.. by floydman · · Score: 1

      well my pal, i am sorry to tell you that i am not an American, in fact am an Egyptian, where the description you are detailing up there, is like a joke here in Egypt. The situation here is much worse...Just trust me on it...;)But what i am saying is this:
      For the sake of humanity to prosper, we should be using each others ideas, "The American Dream" you call it made up capitalism, and it went all the way to patent even freaking THOUGHTS .. i mean shit, now i cant even think of eating a pizza without wondering will pizza hut allow me to eat pizza or not.

      Ofcorse most of would say that "For the sake of humanity ...." is CRAP.. but i dont think it is.. i think that all of this is gonna come to an end soon, made by humans, destroyed by humans, and i f i can rephrase that, made by greed, and destroyed by greed.....

      Mod me down and the pyrmaids bad luck will haunt you...and i am not kidding...:) or am I..

      --
      The lunatic is in my head
    3. Re:Irrelevant but.. by chthon · · Score: 2, Flamebait

      I have a certain pessimistic feeling (or hope ?) that somehow, somewhere a new like French revolution will break out, in which all coroporate leaders will be beheaded or shot, irrelevant if they where good or bad.

    4. Re:Irrelevant but.. by signifying+nothing · · Score: 2, Interesting
      The world itself already does have everything allocated to some "owner". Just try to go out and find something you can legally just claim.

      It's hardly surprising that there is no longer much lying around to be claimed. But isn't the issue not so much a lack of unclaimed resources as an inappropriate extension of the concept of ownership?

    5. Re:Irrelevant but.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      What is this world comming to, is the whole planet gonna be owned by a bunch of people?

      That doesn't bother me. The whole physical world already mostly owned. It drive me nuts that someone can own an idea or a thought and keep me from expressing and using that idea. That's insane. What ever happened to free enterprise?

    6. Re:Irrelevant but.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      These developments are actually a long term good. Despite the fact that patent office abuses are extreme and difficult, IT NEEDS TO GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER! Until people think about patent abuse they same way as tort reform (eg, ridiculous exagerated ludricrious nonsense - think $45 million for spilt coffee) will what needs to happen happens - an immediate end to patent office and the emergence of a new system that recognizes that physical devices - NOT METHODS - are patentable - and only when they aren't common sense - much like having to squeeze all those connectors in a limited amount of space.

      All this is sorry assed losers trying to get over a few on the man.

    7. Re:Irrelevant but.. by Mysticalfruit · · Score: 1

      Hence why I want to go out into the middle of the pacific ocean and start my own floating country! I'll just be a couple thousand football (american) field sized barges all linked together. I'll use solar power to power the whole thing, it'll be great!

      --
      Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
    8. Re:Irrelevant but.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world itself already does have everything allocated to some "owner". Just try to go out and find something you can legally just claim. Hell, even try to visit the North Pole, supposedly not owned by any country, yet "restricted" from any visitors (by whom, one may well ask?). Let me know if you make it within even half a degree without a representative of some military (of a government which clearly has no jurisdiction there, by international treaty) ventilating your corpse.

      Huh?

  12. HP were using a riser card in '97.. by jantheman · · Score: 4, Informative

    ..in their Pavilion 32xx desktops.

    I wonder if Tulip knew that?

    (but I can't be arsed to go in the attic, dig the dead box out & see if there's a (c)Tulip on the mobo).

    --
    -- Mod me down. I am not a karma tart. ffs,gag
    1. Re:HP were using a riser card in '97.. by MImeKillEr · · Score: 2, Informative

      I was going to make the same comment, except that I was going to refer to the entire Vectra line of systems (never used or worked on a Pavilon..)

      This is just another shining example of the utter stupidity of the USPTO.

      Makes me wonder if they're using trained monkeys to grant patents.

      --
      Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
    2. Re:HP were using a riser card in '97.. by Reemi · · Score: 2, Informative

      Guess you didn't read the patent. Tulip filed this one on June 13, 1995 to the USPTOb and almost 1 year earlier in the Netherlands (Jun 14, 1994).

  13. Reefer - I mean patent - maddness ! by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry, there's bullshit patents, and then there are bullshit patents. I read the patent, it's a sad commentary on the current state of affairs.

    --

    In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  14. This is getting out of hand,,, by QuietYou · · Score: 1

    How much more of this will you Americans put up with before you get off your lasy asses and change the system? It's your government - DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

    1. Re:This is getting out of hand,,, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, you're not from around here, are you?

      I keep voting NO, and getting outvoted YES.

      I used to search for the most intelligent candidates and vote for them, but the intelligence level of ALL candidates seems to have fallen to just above "rock" lately.

      This whole country was founded because of the evils of "taxation without representation" and yet I haven't had the opportunity to vote on ANY tax increase in the last 10 years that applied to me.

      At some point, we are just gonna have to remind the damned politicians exactly how this country starte

  15. patents by LX200 · · Score: 1

    didn't ben franklin say something like "a patent is an invitation to a lawsuit" and that was in the 1800's before things got AFU.

  16. packard bell were using a riser card in 1990!! by gonar · · Score: 1

    I know, I'm a chump for ever having owned one, but I had a 386sx/16 box from packard bell bought in 1990. it had a riser card in it.

    before that, I worked with Zeniths that had essentially the same thing, except the "mobo" was vertical and the "riser" was horizontal (unless you turned the box on it's side (oldschool tower))

    (I was overseas at the time and Gateway, then still a company worth buying from, didn't ship to APO addresses)

    this, by 1 year, predates the earliest referenced patent in the claims section of this stupid patent.

    --
    The difference between Theory and Practice is greater in Practice than in Theory.
    1. Re:packard bell were using a riser card in 1990!! by Havokmon · · Score: 1
      I know, I'm a chump for ever having owned one, but I had a 386sx/16 box from packard bell bought in 1990. it had a riser card in it.

      Yep. But the riser card (IIRC), was in the MIDDLE of the case, to the left (with the front facing you) of the power supply. This put the top of the ISA/PCI cards towards the LEFT of the case.

      From what I can see, the patent covers a riser card on the FAR LEFT of the case, with top of the cards closer to the right of the case.

      So you see it's completely different :P

      --
      "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
  17. Actually, could you detail [mod *child* post up] by MickLinux · · Score: 1

    I would be very interested in knowing what Egypt is like. My direct experience is limited to America, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland and Lithuania -- but more information is better.

    Please do tell about how the situation is worse.

    --
    Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
  18. Egypt by Uriel · · Score: 1

    I'm not from Egypt, but here's what I see: Sand, dictators, unhappy people.

    They do have the Aswan High Dam, which was a amazing engineering project. It provides an immense amount of electricity...and it's huge. Many people say Egypt's glory is in the past, but that was pretty remarkable.