Last word not yet in on software patents.

[Ben Scott]

On 5/22/07, Thomas Charron <twaffle at gmail.com> wrote:
>   What gets me is, don't they *HAVE* to defend the patents?  I know
> that applies to Trademarks, but I would assume that they'd have no leg
> to stand on if they blatently allowed one party to publically be
> violating their patents, and then turn around and sue someone else for
> the same patent.

  According to the groupmind over at Slashdot (a reliable source if
there ever was one /SARCASM), the concept you are referring to is
known as "laches" in the legal world.  By knowingly allowing others to
use their stuff without objection, they give up their rights to said
stuff.  The groupmind seems to think that with the current state of
affairs (US patent law and courts), the principle doesn't apply.
Given the success of maneuvers like the UniSys GIF patent and the
NTP/BlackBerry battle, I'd say empirical evidence is the side of the
groupmind in that regard.

-- Ben