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Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tae Spam Kim who wrote (7475)	9/21/1998 6:33:00 PM
From: Simon Cardinale	Respond to of 16960

Tae Kim: Legal mumbo jumbo If 3dfx had a patent on multi-texturing, they may very well have a case. But personally I'd rather have 3dfx win "in the marketplace" than trying to pull off this legal mumbo-jumbo. On the other hand, if their competitors can't produce a competing product legally, then they will win in the market by default (note I'm not saying this is a possible, or the best outcome) I don't know enough about patents to say much, but I did a bit of reading on trademarks a while back. If you don't protect your trademark (not necessarily with lawsuits) then you pretty much lose the right to try and enforce it at a later date. As soon as you see an infringement you fire of a letter to that effect. If needed you back it up with a suit. Making the speculative assumption that patents are somewhat similar, 3Dfx has to move quickly to enforce their patent or they're screwed later. In a strategic sense, this my apply increasing financial pressure for Nvidia to seek a partner or a buyout. From what I hear Nvidia's IPO is in shaky waters. This to me is the most troubling part about this suit. There are a few possible interpretations. I assume that an IPO will be impossible with s3 and 3Dfx lawsuits pending. Was the IPO already dead? Did nVidia have less to lose in a lawsuit because of that? And of course, does nVidia think they can win? It may be they don't think they can, but a vigorous defense may allow them to get better terms or have legal implications for their next generation product. They may want to see exactly what aspects of their technology will win and which will lose. Anyone know more about this sort of thing? Simon