Re: Payments to IBM

--- In [email protected], "Peter D. Ward" <pdw@m...> 
wrote:
> jim wrote:
> 
> >I don't think that patents are anything but fodder for lawyers, 
and
> >seldom have any information
> >of an engineering nature to help with duplicating a process.  
Exceptions
> >being ones which have
> >at the crux of their patents a "key" ingredient.
> >
> >Ibm mainframe systems don't have anything, and apparently have 
what is
> >needed in the POO for
> >each architecture to implement them.
> >
> 
> Jim,  Assuming it was thought valuable, I do not believe IBM would 
place 
> in the POO any documenting materials prior to having applied for a 
> patent on the underlying technology.   You can gain an 
appreciation for 
> this by going to www.uspto.gov and searching for phrases on 
relatively 
> recent facilities added to the POO  like "perform locked 
operation", or 
> even just searching on phrases like "S/390".  In short, to say 
that its 
> in the POO does not remove patent licensing considerations.

Thanks for your answer!  In my humble opinion I think you would be 
in the best possible position to query IBM as to the legal status of 
the Hercules emulator.  Obviously your company has a business 
relationship with IBM that could be adversely affected by IBM's 
acceptence of the Hercules platform.  I'm sure you have asked IBM 
about their position concerning Hercules.  If you have, what kind of 
response did you receive, if not, please ask, it affects you as much 
as it affects the Hercules community!

I'm sure I know what you answer will be to my next question, but 
I'll ask anyway.  Does your other competitor, UMX Technologies, have 
to pay royalities to IBM and how do they feel about the Hercules 
project (you response will probably be, "ask them yourself!").

And one final question/observation.  Do you feel that the current 
debate concerning the legality of the Hercules emulator could be 
compared to the BIOS of the original IBM PC?  Specifically, other 
companies produced IBM compatible PC's without having to license 
IBM's BIOS (someone else wrote a BIOS without having access to IBM's 
BIOS).  Yet, the non-IBM PC's had to produce the same results as the 
IBM PC.  I realize IBM and non-IBM PC's ran the same Intel 
istruction set.  I think this point has been argued before, but what 
about AMD and Cyrix (no longer produced) processors vs. Intel 
processors?  Hasn't Intel attempted to prevent these companies from 
implementing the X86 instruction set and failed, or does AMD pay 
royalities to Intel?

As I said before, you're probably in the best position to get IBM to 
address the Hercules question.  If IBM explicitly or implicitly 
accepts Hercules why would someone pay for your solution if they 
could get one for free.  Yes, I know your solution comes with the 
support of your company and IBM, but free is free!  


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