RE: [xml-dev] More patent funnies!

["Champion, Mike" <Mike.Champion@SoftwareAG-USA.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:clbullar@ingr.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 4:58 PM
> To: Tim Bray; xml-dev@lists.xml.org
> Subject: RE: [xml-dev] More patent funnies!
> 
> 
> On the other hand, one behavior of corporations and communties 
> in reaction to such a broad patent with considerable financial 
> repercussions is to financially hold the owner's head under 
> water until they quit kicking.  This is the problem of having 
> a very valuable patent and insufficient resources to defend it.

Isn't that why God (or maybe it was Satan) created contingency fees?
I presume that there are plenty of lawyers willing to invest a few million $
order to make a few billion $?

Or, just maybe, this is one of those situations where the lawyers and
politicians and patent examiners stare into the Abyss and the Abyss stares
back ... and they trudge back to Washington to figure out a better way to
handle software patents.