On Sun, May 09, 2004 at 10:53:48AM -0400, Ken Elliott wrote:
> That's the good news. Here's the bad news...
>
> http://news.com.com/2100-1001-984052.html
>
This is one of the reasons patents only last a limited time, unlike
copyrights. (Well, copyright lifetime is limited as well, but _much_
longer.) If companies could lock down patents for decades, they would
effectively have monopoly status for that amount of time. Unfortunately,
the 17 years or so that patents last is many generations in computer
technology time.
Paul
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