[aprssig] OT: Yaesu to release digital amateur radio gear

[Amateur Radio WB8NUT]

Jason, first many of the proprietary chips in our radios use technology 
not developed by Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu and the like, but by those "patent 
trolls" like Texas Instrument, Intel, NSI, etc.

Even if those proprietary chips were developed by Kenwood, Icom and 
Yaesu on their own, does not mean that they do not infringe on some 
patent owned by another company or "patent troll" as you refer to them 
and could still result in a patent lawsuit.

The "Open Codec" under development could in fact be in conflict with 
some patent owned by someone else. Don't know until someone looks at it 
since it is "open" and says, "hey, that's my idea, my code, my method, 
etc." and tries to prove it via a court action.

One has only to look at history. Linux is supposed to be "open" but that 
did not stop Microsoft from obtaining royalty payments from Novell/Suse, 
Linspire and others right? Just because someone has developed something 
independently to try to create an "open standard" does not mean it has 
not infringed on someone's existing patent.

Duffy
www.wb8nut.com



On 1/9/12 9:40 AM, Jason KG4WSV wrote:
> What you aren't taking into consideration is the unfortunate trend for 
> IP to be held not by manufacturers but by litigious profiteering 
> patent trolls. A Kenwood radio with a Kenwood custom IC? no big deal; 
> it actually indicates to me that Kenwood is investing in the product 
> line's future. A radio with a codec IC owned by a west Texas patent 
> troll? That's a different animal. I'm not saying that the ABME codec 
> is owned by a patent troll, but tomorrow it could be if it isn't already. 

> -Jason kg4wsv _______________________________________________ aprssig 
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