Blackberry

Posts: 2251 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 3:42 am Post subject: Blackberry

Wow, I am so glad that I did not start a Blackberry forum, not so sure what I would be thinking right about now.

Personally (a self proclaimed early adapter gadget guru) I gave up on the devise after 9-11, as my travels stoped and it was way too big for a around the town devise.

But, Blackberry has a huge following, bigger than Palm ever had and all soon to be disco-ed curtesy of a US Federal judge and his almighty powers.

It is sad. Very sad.

Room for discussion here?

Oh, BTW, this is TOTALLY off topic for this site and this forum, but I am in the mood tonight. Smile

Posts: 65 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:35 pm Post subject:

Nothing to talk about at the moment. I'm an addicted Blackberry user (corporate use) and am hoping that nothing bad will happen. If it does, then I imagine this could become a busy thread with much crying (I'll be among the first).

ajay

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 1:41 pm Post subject:

It won't be discontinued -- there's too many powerful people relying upon it. There isn't really a comparable device out at the moment. Most likely, RIM will tell the plaintiffs to either negotiate out a reasonable settlement or RIM will just file for bankruptcy (to avoid paying out) and re-emerge. I have several cilents who use Blackberries religiously and I know they'll do whatever it takes to keep them going. I tried one...but decided I'd rather NOT be that accessible.

Posts: 65 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 4:06 pm Post subject:

I don't understand why the settlement reached several years ago wasn't honored. It could have forestalled whatever is about to happen.

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon here in Central Illinois and I've already sent out several emails thanks (or not) to my Blackberry. It goes everywhere I go (sad, huh!).

As I said before, oh well.

Posts: 65 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 4:07 pm Post subject:

Sorry for the double post. Been having some problems with the forum here, slow loading.

Posts: 2251 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject:

ajay wrote:

Sorry for the double post. Been having some problems with the forum here, slow loading.

Very slow loading. We have a ticket open with our service provider.
Sorry

Posts: 1424 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject:

VonageTPA wrote:

Most likely, RIM will tell the plaintiffs to either negotiate out a reasonable settlement or RIM will just file for bankruptcy (to avoid paying out) and re-emerge.

I am not certain how this would work since RIM would still be in violation after bankruptcy, and since their assets might have to be turned over to their creditors.

As much as this is going to be painful I think it is a good thing. Something needs to be done to put a stop to the business of camping on patents until someone creates something useful and then going to court to get a piece of the pie.

The intention of the patent system is to provide a limited monopoly on a technology to recover development costs and incentivize development in the first place. If the patent holder isn't going to make an effort to commercialize an invention or even proactively search for licensees for the patents then he should lose the rights to the patent.

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:56 pm Post subject:

If you really want to see opportunistic patents, go look up some of the crazy things Microsoft has patented lately.

Posts: 350 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Dec 04, 2005 Posts: 350

scerruti wrote:

As much as this is going to be painful I think it is a good thing. Something needs to be done to put a stop to the business of camping on patents until someone creates something useful and then going to court to get a piece of the pie.

The intention of the patent system is to provide a limited monopoly on a technology to recover development costs and incentivize development in the first place. If the patent holder isn't going to make an effort to commercialize an invention or even proactively search for licensees for the patents then he should lose the rights to the patent.

You're right. There are tons of "companies" (I use that term loosely since most are just some guy) that apply for patents, get them, DO NOTHING WITH THEM, and wait for someone else ON THEIR OWN to develop a product and then sue for patent infringement. Not only that, but the U.S. Patent Office has been awarding patents to things that really shouldn't receive one. If you look at the Blackberry patent, it is nothing groundbreaking.

If only I patented half the things I thought up 10 years ago but didn't have the ability to develop back then...

Posts: 1715 · Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 11:49 am Post subject:

While we're on the patent talk... what are your thoughts on people patenting living things? There's a handful of companies out there which have patented sequences of DNA... I'm not sure how the patent office allowed this one to happen. I could see (maybe) allowing patents for genetically-modified mice, etc, but to just "discover" the sequence of regular human DNA doesn't seem like a patentable thing to me. IN theory, they could insist that anyone posessing this DNA and making it without their authorization is in violation of the patent

Also, does anyone know the steps needed to patent something? I have quite a few little inventions that I use quite often & know there is a market for some of them. I've already lost out on quite a bit of money by not patenting some of them. About 10 years ago, I came up with an audio encoding algorithm that improved upon the compression found in MPEG Layer II and Layer III audio. I had a clumsy, but functional prototype going. The amount of processing power required to do the encoding and decoding was a bit much at the time, so I eventually tabled it. Now, both Sirius & XM satellite radio use a codec that's VERY similar to what I had on my workbench. I'm sure the patent rights for that could have easily paid for med school right there, along with a nice house on the beach.