Microsoft: No easy mark

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Mixed bag

--- But don't you think that InterTrust, for instance, is in a
better position for the next case because of what happened with
Microsoft?---

Certainly in some ways. The $440 M gives them a lot of cash
they could use to cover legal fees. They can also say, hey MS
believed our IP was real, you should too. But a different
company always has the right to say that MS was mistaken, and
let InterTrust take them to court.

Also, there's the question of the cost of such things. Because MS
is willing to pay $440 M for something, does that mean that's
how much every other company must pay? It's certainly in
InterTrust's interest to have their technology widespread and
used by as many companies as possible, so pricing themselves
out of the market is not a good plan. It is a good plan for MS in
some areas, as their highly profitable monopoly position is
helped by keeping technologies exclusive to MS. But for
someone like InterTrust, the more, the merrier.

And like MS has a sliding scale for prices of Office and Windows
in various countries, I'd expect InterTrust to sell their IP for
whatever the market will bear. MS will make more money off
using it, so they have to pay more to license it.

Posted by: tic swayback   Posted on: 04/15/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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