Microsoft Patents 'IsNot'

[Carlos Ribeiro]

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 22:20:28 +0100, Peter Maas <peter at somewhere.com> wrote:
> Could this patent be circumvented by writing "not (a is b)" instead
> of "a is not b"? If that would be the case the patent claim would
> be even more ridiculous.

Going off-topic.

Ridiculous patents are not the exclusive domain of software. A few
years ago someone (I think it was Motorola, but I'm not sure) got a
patent on "Vibracall", or how to make a cell phone vibrate when
receiving calls. They didn't want to license the patent to their
competitors. Nokia circumvented it by putting the vibracall circuits
into the battery pack. So when you bought a Nokia digital phone, you
have to buy a "vibracall enabled battery". It was that weird.

-- 
Carlos Ribeiro
Consultoria em Projetos
blog: http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com
blog: http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com
mail: carribeiro at gmail.com
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