Reply to post: Re: re: "We were told to ignore intellectual property rights when designing the modem."

Re: re: "We were told to ignore intellectual property rights when designing the modem."

The first part is reasonable and is basically the modus operandi of most technology R&D departments

Slightly more complicated. Based on my experience of doing this in several companies including a Valley one the situation is as follows:

There is a specific modus operandi which is localized to CS and electronics and US (and/or companies which are US owned).

1. You are NOT allowed to search for existing intellectual property. Looking up existing patents in your field for an engineer is a sackable offence.

2. If you KNOW about related IPR you MUST excuse yourself from the project. Not doing so is a sackable offence.

3. You are not allowed to comment about any knowledge you have on existing IPR to other co-workers (as in that post). That is also a sackable offence.

The reason behind this is the tripling of damages for wilful infringement in USA patent law. Due to most US electronics and especially software patents failing the obviousness test as per Eu patent law this strategy works. Shit just gets re-invented on the cheap and then it is (in a worst case scenario) non-willful infringement, in most cases lawyers manage to wiggle out on minor technical differences.

One thing you do not EVER do is get someone who has touched a piece of IPR to declare that it is to be ignored. The company legal depts enforce this without mercy.

Thus, I find it difficult to believe that an Apple person who has had a brush-up with Qualcom IPR (as per Qualcomm complaint) has instructed Intel to do this. It does not ring true. As far as an Apple person who has NOT been anywhere near a Qualcomm cell modem asking Intel to do this - it is business as usual, but once again - least likely to be said in the open. Stuff like this is said internally, but never put in writing outside a company in a communication with a supplier. So once again - this sounds like flying pigs revving their engines for take off.

This all is quite different from Chemistry, Biology, etc where any piece of R&D starts with a literature search. There inventions are usually for real so you cannot just reinvent it on the cheap as in CS.