This is just like Don Lancaster says in his Case Against Patents files!

Thanks for your thoughts.  I'm back to reality now after flaming Zhu for
making me feel like he'd somehow snag my PIC code over the Internet while I
sleep...He'll probably only do his decode service for mega products like TV
remotes, and they expect the competition, and have more work than they can
handle in the higher end stuff, so an insider said recently.

John Griessen

-----Original Message-----
[JG]...
It looks to me like Microchip is caught up in the industry fad of making
wild
IP claims (who ever used the term IP more than 2 years ago) to bolster their
stock value.  I can't help but think that these patents are weak, and are
only
useful as a threat against startups that might threaten their market share.
In effect, any startup has to budget a sizable amount of cash to keep
attorneys on retainer and hope they can bring their case to court before
they
go bankrupt or lose their venture capital.

The flaw in the "IP as a weapon" strategy is that you can't afford to risk
having crappy patent claims invalidated in  open court if you have sold your
stock holders on the idea that your "IP portfolio" is the basis of the
company's value (rather than your popular products).

Why else would Microchip have only brought 6 of its 67 wonderful patents
against Scenix, and later dropped the number to 2?

BTW - The burden is on the patent holder to show infringement, not the other
way around.

Justin Zeit [Zeitcorp@AOL.COM]