This is a common misconception. I went and checked the patent law to see
what the case was.
Once a patent is granted, it is yours until it expires. It does not matter
whether you defend it against a particular violator or not. Thus IBM could
happily let everybody in the Free Software community violate one of their
patents, while enforcing it against corporate users of the patent, and
there would be no problem with losing the patent.
However: If you do not enforce your patent against someone for a certain
period of time (I think it was five years), you lose the right to file a
civil lawsuit AGAINST THAT PARTICULAR VIOLATOR. You still have the right
to enforce your patent on all other violators.
-- Eric Lee Green eric@linux-hw.com http://www.linux-hw.com/~eric "Linux represents a best-of-breed UNIX, that is trusted in mission critical applications..." -- internal Microsoft memo
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