Sure C2, I understand that patents [and copyright] will be protected. I just meant the bundled aspect of the patents. MSFT has been forced to pay big penalties because they bundled a browser into an operating system.
That forcing was done by the USA government, which as you say, derives vast taxes from the MSFT world.
The government still protects the right of MSFT to sell said software, just not in a single-priced bundle.
QUALCOMM doesn't in fact price each patent. They price a bundle at a single low price, irrespective of which patents are included in that bundle. I like to debate and argue, and look for various viewpoints, but I wouldn't want to stand in front of a judge and argue that each patent is individually priced by QCOM.
Of course the judge will protect QCOM's rights to ownership of each patent, but given my understanding of the definition of monopoly in various legal systems, and the drooling attack on 'monopoly' by public and politicians, I don't see an escape from such an attack given QUALCOMM's current patent selling technique = 'any or all for one low price'.
Anti-monopolists define 'monopoly' to mean what they want it to mean. They simply tighten the boundaries of "the market" until they have caught the victim they wish to catch.
So, the market isn't communication, as that would include talking, writing, newspapers, tv, cyberspace, carrier pigeons, sign language, morse code and all sorts of other techniques of communication. They need to tighten it as QUALCOMM doesn't have a monopoly in all those.
Okay, let's cut to the chase and define the "market" as cyberspace communications. Ooops, that's no good because there is fibre and twisted pair and lasers and other stuff.
Okay, limit it to wireless communications. Hmmm, there's still GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3GSM, TDMA, lasers, WiFi, WiMax, and swarms of other means.
Okay, let's narrow the "market" to mobile cyberspace wireless communications. No, that still leaves GSM, GPRS, Flarion, WiFi etc in the net.
Okay, tighten it down to "3G", that should do the trick. Go for the jugular and define the market as being the patents in which we are interested. So OFDM is not included, nor WiFi, nor Bluetooth, nor pulsed monocycles. We can ignore those because they have a small market share and that conveniently puts QUALCOMM into the 'dominant market position' category too.
Bingo! We have a dominant market position and closely-defined technology. Get the lawyers, check QCOM's balance sheet and start figuring how much can be carved off as punishment for being anti-competitive, monopolistic, illegally bundling, greedy and having money when the lawyers, judges, juries, politicians and public don't. Get some competitors to report how awful QCOM is.
The patents will still be protected. They'll just transfer payments from shareholders to leeches.
Mqurice |
