Re: Freedom Scientific's Lawyers Strike Again

Hi Jamal,

Sad to say, I believe that the only clear winners in this law suit are the 
lawyers.

It would appear that the purpose of this lawsuit is not to protect FS 
interests, but to suppress fair competition. It's not about the place marker 
patent, it's about trying to stop the release of another screen reader that 
has scripting capabilities.

My opinion on the matter is that FS better get off their collective buts and 
fix the problems with their own product rather than trying to eliminate the 
competition.

I hope that FS monitors this group because they have lots of their customers 
really upset with this kind of attitude.
Regards,

Jim
jimpanes@xxxxxxxxx
jimpanes@xxxxxxxxxxxx
"Everything is easy when you know how."

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jamal Mazrui" <empower@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2008 7:21 AM
Subject: RE: Freedom Scientific's Lawyers Strike Again


Hi Ken,
I suspect you were being tongue in cheeck (and I love your sense of
humor!).  Although legal fights can be entertaining, I don't see how this
is in the interest of blind people, forcing a company to spend money on
defending against litigation rather than on R&D to improve access to
mainstream software.

FYI -- the patent FS claims was violated is described at
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=%226,993,707+B2%22&OS=

I'm amazed that FS thought its placemarker feature was innovative enough
to patent.  This seems like an example of taking advantage of the magical
nature of assistive technology to the uninformed, and then trying to
leverage it in questionable trade practices for corporate gain.  The fact
that GW was never notified of the concern while its product has been in
beta with public demos strongly suggests that the aim is to damage GW
economically, not actually to protect intellectual property.

What do others think?

Jamal

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