ricep5
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join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL
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| reply to kyramilan
Re: Who wrote this snippet?
Lucent has quite the IP (Intellectual Property)Group there. I read an article on them sometime ago in Forbes. Back then they had 24 full time attorneys who do nothing but look for royalty enforcement. They generate a lot of revenue relative to their overhead and some in Lucent would claim that it was IP royaties that kept them afloat during the post bubble depression they went through.
In the early Nineties when IBM was starting to struggle, it was determined that they could completely leave the manufacturing and marketing business and lay off almost everyone and still pay dividends based on royalties for 30 years.
Most people don't know that IBM developed the digital encoding method used on music CD's today back in 1956. They get 3 cents for every music CD sold in the world.
What does this mean with Microsoft? Lucent really doesn't want the money (though MS can afford it), they want access to the MS asset & patent portfolio. Establishing a financial liability in the court helps them set up a negotiation position.
Lucent knows MS could afford to appeal this for years....I predict a settlement with a patent and IP cross licensing deal. |
