[asterisk-users] Patent issues, what features we can't use?

[SIP]

Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 16, 2007 at 11:00:05PM -0400, Zeeshan Zakaria wrote:
>   
>>    This is really ridiculous. So this means that now nobody can use
>>    fax-to-email without paying to J2 first?
>>     
>
> Horseshit.  Prior art is trivial.  How old is Hylafax?
>
> Cheers,
> -- jra
>   
It's never trivial if you're a small company. J2 has already won 
settlements from several smaller companies, which gives it precedence. 
Once precedence is established, it's almost a done deal for future 
lawsuits and fighting them is exponentially harder with each settlement 
they get. While it may boil down in the end to prior art, having the 
money to fight that far in the legal system is something else. A fight 
like that would put most small businesses under, and forget about 
getting external funding if you have this hanging over your head. No one 
wants to fund a company with a lawsuit against it.

N.