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)
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AIM Screen Name: tclhelp


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