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Intel Countersues Transmeta
An anonymous reader writes "After being sued by Transmeta for patent infringement last year, the fangs are out at Intel. In a suit filed in Delaware, Intel claims Transmeta has infringed on 7 of its patents. The whole saga revolves around chips designed to be energy efficient."
The scenario Stallman talks about is altogether too obviously possible. Patents are evil and should be eradicated.
The only way for the little guy to really fight the big guys is to release inventions into the public domain where they will be produced by whoever sees a market for them rather than whoever wants to pay the outrageous license fee and royalties. The only incentive for this is purely ethical, although one must consider the fame for this will most likely result in a R&D job somewhere. But who funds R&D departments that don't churn out patents?
One has to ask the question: if Transmeta had not sued Intel, would Intel have sued Transmeta?
He's almost right. The little guy can go up against the big guy and win, as long as the little guy doesn't make the mistake of making anything first. If Transmeta had sold their patents to a shell company (in exchange for, say 99% of the royalties), then the shell company could have sued Intel, and Intel would only have been able to sue Transmeta, not the shell company.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Ah, thank you for pointing out an interesting solution to this problem -- however, the possibility of the larger company suing the company which owns the shell company still exists. So the only real solution is to develop a patent, and not intend to use it for anything -- ie. not intend to use this wonderful "new technology" to bring more prosperity to the human race (or however the patent system was first envisioned). Personally I think that the patent system as it currently stands needs some sort of overhaul.
I guess Intel learned its lesson from its Intergraph experience. Here was a company that was brought back in business via its win against Intel in a IP suit: http://library.findlaw.com/2003/May/13/132730.html