- From: Benjamin Franz <snowhare@nihongo.org>
- Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 08:15:42 -0700 (PDT)
- To: public-web-plugins@w3.org
On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 christopher.jauregui@syngenta.com wrote:
>
> This could be one of those defining moments in US law. The patent holder
> can't just sue MS and not Mozilla, etc. or else the owner could be done for
> unfair trading practices, like MS was.
Sure they can. Eolas hasn't been legally adjudged a monopolist in any
market. Monopolies (MS, for example) live under a different legal regime
than non-monooplists because their overwhelming marketplace power makes
things that are 'competing tough' for a market with multiple viable
competitors into 'competing with an unfair and unbeatable advantage'.
Patent owners are not generally _FORCED_ to licence their patents to all
comers 'fairly' (or even at all). I can point to _you_ and say: "You have
to pay me $100,000,000,000 per year. But _this other fellow_ gets it for
$1 a year. Nyah. Nyah."
--
Benjamin Franz
People buy holes, not drill bits.
---Peter Deutsch
Received on Thursday, 4 September 2003 11:19:38 UTC