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To: JimC1997 who wrote (6512)	7/15/1999 1:23:00 AM
From: JimC1997	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18366

I'm going to add one more note on the patent then hit the sack: I found an interesting post on the Yahoo AHWY message board (#14191) regarding the patent today: "Most people hear the word "patent" and they immediately think "gold mine". That's not always the case. In fact, a patent is often worth less than the paper it is printed on. A patent is like the metes and bounds of your land description. You could have 5 acres of intellectual property, or you could have 5,000 acres. It all depends on what is in the patent document itself, and what the patent attorneys did during prosecution of the application to secure the patent. The application giving rise to this patent was supposedly filed back in 1995. That's 4 years or so of prosecution. On average, a patent should issue within 2 years of filing. This implies that the patent attorneys had a very difficult time trying to persuade the Patent Office that this invention was patentable. In all likelihood, the patent attorneys were required to significantly narrow the scope of the patent in order to get it allowed. My point is this. Few patents are broad enough to bring competitors to their knees. I sincerely doubt this highly touted patent is within that elite group. Just a friendly patent attorney giving free advise." There was relatively little excitement about the patent news on that message board, much more of the discussion related to a rumor of an AOL buyout of that firm at $30-$35. If the patent has merit, it certainly makes Audiohighway more attractive to AOL. (And that may have been what prompted AHWY to issue the press release.) Jim