Re: Big Time Cabinets announcement


flynnibus wrote:

You are mixing up the PATENT discussion.. which the holder of a patent
must pay maintanence feeds to the patent office to keep the patent
'current' and LICENSING which is an agreement between parties about use
of some material or intelectual property.

No, I'm perfectly aware of the difference. I didn't write anything that
would indicate that I was inquiring about his maintenance fees to the
USPTO. (feeds? are they taking grain for tender nowadays?)

The fees in discussion are about are the old WMS patents still current.
Some have posted info saying their fees have not been paid, so they
will expire and become fair game.

That was only part of the discussion. The part I am addressing had to
do with Wayne's offer to license the rights. My point being that if I
were to license the rights to manufacture an item that he held the
rights to, if it were something that had the potential to make a lot of
money, was he willing to do that without cash outlay up front? And just
what is it that I'm going to make that is going to make us both rich?
Nothing. As I said farther down, it's a labor of love for the hobby by
most everyone that does it. How you choose to snip my post to make your
point is your prerogative, but don't ignore the main part of the
discussion to try to make me look the fool.

nothing, you expect everyone in the USA to believe that you are
actually going to pay attorney's fees of $200/hr to have some schmuck
hand deliver a C & D notice to every person who is making stuff that
may or may not be covered under the existing patents? (because they are
not valid if sent via post or email)

BS. You don't pay a lawyer to hand deliver a C&D letter. It's call
certified mail! You just have to ensure the person received the
letter. If they refuse the letter, you can 'serve' someone where you
pay an agency to make sure someone gets the item hand delievered to the
reciever.

Which is basically the same thing - he may not have to pay $200/hr to
have them delivered, but he's going to have to pay. Are you going to
sign for a C&D from the postman or admit you are the addressee? And how
much is it going to cost in the end for every one to be hand delivered?
Agencies aren't cheap. And how much time and effort and money is he
going to have to throw at the problem to make it go away? More than
it's worth.

And then, after that, pay for the
litigation to determine whether or not that is the case, and from the
other side of the world no less? I hardly think so.

You must defend copyright to keep it valid. If he just rolled over, he
would further someone else's case in the future that he didn't try to
stop the previous people.

Exactly why Williams didn't bother in the first place. They had enough
legal issues to deal with already without enriching a gang of attorneys
by having them chase after petty change.
My point being it's going to cost him money, money that he isn't going
to be making any of until he makes pinball machines. I think you should
refrain from jumping my ass when the point of the posting is that he
ought to focus on making pinball machines instead of making threats.
Just because there were semantical things that you don't agree with
doesn't mean the message is invalid or irrational. And I don't mean to
be combative with you, just defending my position on something that I
shouldn't really have to defend to people other than Wayne.
Another point I'm saying without stating it obviously is that he now
has only two of his three projects to deal with until the attorneys for
Irwin's estate hash out a licensing deal with him. It's likely he has a
lot of money tied up into a project that is going to be back-burnered
indefinitely. He's not making enough off of the current licenses and
parts to keep the doors open too much longer, although at those prices,
he doesn't have to sell too many to pay some of his bills. Without
product to ship, the SS Wayne is going to sink sooner rather than
later, so he ought to think about that instead of devoting time and
energy to something his predecessors had already figured was a losing
battle.
John

.

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