Re: Sharing the Family PC is Patent-Pending

[Barry Pearson]

AES/newspost wrote:
[snip]
> 1)  I suppose it's always possible that MS is patenting this not
> because they genuinely believe it merits patenting, and not with any
> intentions of enforcing the patent, but simply as a protective
> measure against someone else patenting something similar and coming
> after them.  I believe Jeff Bezos has indicated that he follows more
> or less the same tactic with amazon.com business patents.
[snip]

What used to happen, and perhaps still does, is that companies would use
patents as bargaining chips. "We have these patents, and they will screw you
up for years. You have those, and they will screw us up for years. Let's come
to a mutual agreement not to fight about this. Then we can both screw up all
the others for years".

Does this still happen?

-- 
Barry Pearson
http://www.Barry.Pearson.name/photography/
http://www.BirdsAndAnimals.info/
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