To: NHBob who wrote (27523 ) 8/23/1999 8:43:00 PM From: Dave B Read Replies (1) | Respond to
NH,Naw, these guys are all heavy hitters, big brass ones. Most, even at the little league level see patents as a license to steal, not a business prohibition. Reverse engineering & all that. The time to develop a threatening case is on the order of years, likely years too if it ever gets to court. all of them. The lack of supply can, and has been, a significant issue in the design process. The fear that the part you design into a product won't be available can shrivel up some big brass ones pretty quickly ("let's see should we go with the solution that may not be available at all, in which case we get $0 revenue, or with the solution that's more expensive, but will be here, in which case I get some revenue?" "How much would I have to churn the organization to change my product from DDR to RDRAM later?" "What would that cost me in manufacturing hiccups? in additional support costs? in lost goodwill by customers?"). I'm working with a company right now that's changing their product design to use a different part because they've had problems with the supplier of a part (and in this case, it's just been shortages, not even a complete cut-off of parts).
