Re: 1571/1581 Sources: Macro WDTEST inserting NOP before reading WD177x status register / writing command register

From: Rainer Buchty <rainer_at_buchty.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2022 18:42:31 +0100 (CET)
Message-ID: <2a7fa68-fa7b-77e0-744a-282a15f8159c_at_buchty.net>
On Fri, 18 Mar 2022, smf wrote:

> Because they got sued for non payment of the license fees for the 
> patent and prevented from importing any products into the US that 
> included the infringement.

Which typically are just paid because it's easier to pay a patent troll 
than to fight him in court. All the others ssemingly did this, too.

$10 Million would've been pocket money for Commodore (or less than 3 
years of annual payments to Mehdi Ali's and Irving Gould -- not 
counting in incentives/benefits) based on the previous years profit.

If you think you can beat them, then you countersue -- to later arrange 
a patent licensing deal. But usually patent trolls price themselves as a 
level where going full court would in the end cost more in internal 
efforts and lawyer costs.

However, if your product, even the upgraded one, is not competetitive 
anymore, but suddenly even inferior, then things happen like the 
Commodore / Amiga sales and revenue curve ...

See e.g.
 	https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/01/a-history-of-the-amiga-part-10-the-downfall-of-commodore/

10M patent costs would've added pretty much nothing compared to a net 
loss of almist 400M in 1993 ...

Rainer
Received on 2022-03-18 19:03:57

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