Re: Patent threat over RDF?

on 1/2/02 4:30 PM, Uche Ogbuji at uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com wrote:

> To start the New Year on a toasty note, I received a bulky Fedex from a Terry
> K. Qualey at an IP law firm.

Hi all,

I'm saddened to hear this, but I hope that I can provide some help. I have a
non-lawyer friend who is very knowledgable about patent law, especially
software patents. He understands RDF reasonably well, and has offered his
help in this matter.

I'd be interested if you could provide more information on the letter they
sent. Was it phrased agressively (i.e. did they threaten to sue?) and what
were the licensing terms they offered? From what you wrote, they don't sound
all that serious -- probably just wanted to see who they could easily scare
into licensing.

My friend suggested that the best thing to do was to send them a letter
saying that you would investigate their claims, and get back to them later.
You could potentially ask for a claim chart with details on how your product
infringes on the patent. Since I'm sure all of us are very busy people, it
may be a bit of time until you can get back to them about the issues.

My friend also said he'd take a look at the patent and see if there were any
obvious holes, etc. However, it doesn't seem like these folks are too
agressive yet. If that changes, he suggested a number of possible ways to
move forward.

Live from London,
 - Aaron

Received on Wednesday, 2 January 2002 16:20:42 UTC