Greetings, From: Ray Campbell <ray.campbell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:27:02 -0500 Hello All: While I am not a lawyer and certainly don't know much about patent law, I want to throw out a few comments on the Freedom Scientific Vs. GW Micro lawsuit from an Adaptive Technology Professional's point of view. The charge of patent infrungement is a very serious one. Companies obtain patents to protect things they have invented, intellectual property and a host of other things. When a patent is infringed, all of the work which the patent holder put into their product is, in effect, being stolen and used by the entity infringing on a patent to make a profit. We do not know how the courts are going to rule in this case, and, this case may take years to make its way through the Federal system. The Federal courts are not exactly known for moving things along quickly. What we do know is, there will be depositions and discovery and Freedom Scientific will be forced to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that GW Micro has infringed on its patent. This is a high burden of proof. Having said all of this, I personally find the actions taken by Freedom Scientific disgusting. These actions make Freedom Scientific appear as though they believe GW Micro is a huge threat to their business, and they make Freedom look as though they want to stifle free and fair competition. If GW has engaged in patent infringement, which I do not believe they have based on what I know so far, they need to be stopped from doing so. There are many features which are alike in both screen reading products. FS and its legal team would say these are not patented. Suing over placemarkers comes across as silly in my opinion. The only ones who will be hurt by all of this are those of us who are blind, and the consumers we serve. Say FS wins, and GW Micro is forced out of business. That would leave us who are blind one less choice in Adaptive Technology. The same would be the case if FS were to go out of business. We need to foster an environment where consumers who are blind have many choices in the adaptive solutions they use. This reduces prices and forces companies to innovate and make new, better features available. FS and their legal team believe GW Micro is bringing forward new features in a way that violates their patent. Let the courts decide on that. One last thing. All of us on the various lists need to be careful what we say about this publicly. GW Micro's e-mail list moderators should probably barr any discussions of this matter on their e-mail lists. This battle will be fought in the courts and nothing we as customers of either Freedom Scientific or GW Micro will change the outcome of that process. Yes, we all have our opinions and at this point, can share them. But, if and when the lawyers tell both companies to stop public discussion of this legal matter, we all need to respect that. Ray Campbell, Help Desk Technician Adaptive Technology Center Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired 1850 W. Roosevelt Road Chicago, IL 60608 312-997-3651 (Voice/Relay) or 888-825-0080 (voice/Relay) ray.campbell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx AIM Screen Name: tclhelp VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List. Archived on the World Wide Web at http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html Signoff: vicug-l-unsubscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subscribe: vicug-l-subscribe-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx From Colin Howard near Southampton in Southern England. ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq