At 23:46 -0400 4/8/01, Valdis(_dot_)Kletnieks(_at_)vt(_dot_)edu wrote:
On Sun, 08 Apr 2001 22:17:02 EDT, John Day said:
> I do not know about other countries, but I do know that the US
> government has taken action against companies for announcing products
> and then deciding later to not offer those products. Hence, most
> people do not talk about possible future product offerings until they
> are duly approved and ready to be offered to customers.
However, I suspect that RamBus is about to find out that failing to
disclose pending patents may be a bad idea:
Pending patents are a different matter. First of all, pending
patents do not necessarily have anything to do with product plans.
Second, if you are participating in a standards process that asks
that a participant divulge any patents that may be relevant to their
work and you don't, then you are not playing by the rules. That
said, it is not clear what the committee can do about it. They can't
very well censure the participant, the damage is done. The fact that
the company will have undermined its influence in the committee is
about all one can hope for.