RE: Prior Art

Hi Hector,

Having worked in patent cases, I can tell you that companies in general
look far and wide in other areas for prior art.  Clearly BBS is a good
area to be looking at in the '906 Eolas case and my guess is that both
Microsoft and Eolas have looked for prior art in the BBS market.  

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: public-web-plugins-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-web-plugins-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Hector Santos
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 4:21 PM
To: public-web-plugins@w3.org
Subject: Re: Prior Art



Hi Richard,    Just wanted to make a comment about this:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms@computerbytesman.com>
To: <public-web-plugins@w3.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2003 3:29 PM
Subject: RE: Prior Art


> Presumably Microsoft has already done an extensive prior art search.
I
> wonder what their results have been......
>

Yes, you would think so, however, Microsoft has never been in the BBS
market
(yes and no, more below).  In fact, they still classify us as a "home
market" product which is fine by me, when in fact, we are the among the
top,
if not the #1 BBS/intranet system in the Medical, Health, Collections,
Claims, Payroll market  - anywhere there they corporations still believe
that a dialup system is more secure than the INTERNET.  In fact,  for
the
majority, it (dialup) is the exception to the HIPAA rule if not using
the
internet.   As they migrate, our client/server system covers them.

In any case, yes,  I am curious to find out prior art Microsoft used as
a
defense.  I am leaning to the idea that they could care less about prior
art
and possibly tried to negotiate a deal that didn't fall well for both
parties and Microsoft,  known to put TIME, MONEY  and more importantly
market presence pressure, thought the other party would eventually give
in.

So ponder the expression,  "Screw Microsoft!"   In my book,  I'm more
concern about how I can continue using silly old technology used WELL
before
Microsoft and that other party used it!

Sincerely,

Hector Santos, CTO
Santronics Software, Inc.
http://www.santronics.com
305-431-2846 Cell
305-248-3204 Office

Received on Saturday, 30 August 2003 16:59:30 UTC