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NEC Demands License Fees For Carbon Nanotubes
apirkle writes "As reported in this article on EEtimes.com, NEC has claimed today that they own 'essential patents' on carbon nanotubes, and that all companies who make or sell nanotubes must purchase a license. NEC has a press release stating that they have already sold a license."
..the SCO of the Science World.
"All your nanotubes are belong to us"
FP!
I'd be happy to give them a micropayment for their nanotubes.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
New corporate motto "holding up progress, one patent at a time"
"That will be $699 per micron of nanotube length. Pay up now. Make it snappy: we have an auto-parts company to sue tomorrow."
I have a patent on a device that intakes mostly oxygen and the discharges carbon dioxide. It also has the ability to intake organic matter and discharges non used waste matter...
Now for the law suites... You will all be receiving a letter from my lawyer shortly
DeBeers, inspired by NEC's recent move, pattents the diamond latice crystal structure.
They have announced they intend to sue all companies who profit from their crystal, starting with synthetic diamond makers who use their crystal shape in carbon, then moving on into the semiconductor industry (where their pattented crystal structure is widely used in silicon).
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
...NEC alleges that IBM improperly copied carbon nanotubes into Linux. :)
When asked for comment a NEOCorp spokesman said, "It really is too bad about that kid dying or whatever, but we've got to focus on the real issue here, our IP was being flagrantly abused in public with no monetary compensation to us, and we are not going to sit idly by and allow the screaming naked masses to continue to profit from the light and heat given off as a byproduct of producing NEOCorp's patented molecules."
When asked for comment on why NEOCorp felt it had the right to patent naturally occuring substances that it merely found rather than explicitly created, the original reporter was rapidly bludgeoned to near-death and taken to NEOCorp's multitrillion dollar headquarters (previously Japan) for immediate Company Re-Education.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
So, can I patent gold, silver, and platinum, and start demanding fees from Jewelry and precious metal manufacturers? Don't carbon nanotubes ever occur in nature? Seems to me the rule was that they could patent their method for building them, but if you could figure out another way to do it, it was fair game. Now NEC is claiming it is impossible to make a carbon nanotube without infringing their methods? What, is everybody infringing on step 1: "First, take some carbon..."?!?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
NO kidding! this is utterly ridiculous, how can someone even claim to own a patent on nanotubes? seriously! idiots.....er, what are nanotubes?
Putting a Stop to NEC Nonsense: A) A boycott of all NEC products. B) A campaign to dump all NEC stock from pension funds. C) A mass movement for jury nullification of all acts of attorney-cide, that means open season on attorneys. Now some might say there are good attorneys who are trying to change the system from within, as there were some "good" Nazis.