Five PC Vendors Face Patent Lawsuit
Combuchan writes "This article from internetnews.com caught my attention: While Linux lawsuits gobble up the IT community's mindshare, a lesser-known legal action is being fought seeking billions of dollars from five PC vendors. Patriot Scientific, a small, San Diego-based seller of embedded microprocessors for automotive and scientific applications, is suing Sony, Fujitu, Matsushita, Toshiba, and NEC, alleging infringement of a Patriot patent for what it calls 'fundamental microprocessor technology.'"
When will it end!!!
It should be legal to kick the living crap out of anyone that wants to take out/enforce patents this downright dumb.
(First post too, I think) *ding*
"Patriot says the Intel processors used by Sony and others are violating its 5,809,336 patent. Granted in 1998, the patent describes a microprocessor with a variable speed system clock."
Small company seeks redress through the courts.
Big companies file countersuits to intimidate smaller rival.
Looks like a serious, non-trivial patent, so what's the problem?
Silly me, this is slashdot. Last bastion of Leninist ideology where the belief that there should be no private property and everything should be free for the taking is held as a sacred truth.
giddy up n fuck
Japanese were amongst the strongest allies of the americans led coalition during the last war to Iraq. They even lost at least two diplomats in the conflict.
But, hey! They won't lose such a valuable friendship such as America's no?
What a bunch of losers! Lost WW2 in 1945, lost their industrial and economic dominance in the nineties... Now they will probably pay Patriot Scientific whatever they asked without a word of protest, without asking about japaneses being the only ones to pay! Losers!
look, read the damn patent.
This is NOT a bogus patent claim. This very well could be a significant invention.
It seems they invented the way a chip can maintain a constant speed under fluntuating temperatures. As anybody who as designed a chip in the last few years knows, that is a big deal.
This is just a patent issue between some major companies, I fail to see how this is 'news for nerds'. If this company was suing consumers who happend to have a computer that used this technology, that issue would definatly be news for nerds.
hell, it seems the so called 'nerds' can't even be bothered to find any interest in the technology in the underlining patent.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on