Hirsch Friedman

Red Hat Opposes Software Patents in Court

Some years ago I was the director of Research & Development for Cameras for Indusrty, Inc. (CFI), a subsidiary for RFI (Research Frontiers, Inc.) which has been listed for over thirty years. They manufactured security cameras for banks and with the patent granted for the electronic controls were far ahead of most of the competition.

It has been forty years since the patent was issued and no one has ever noticed that the circutry printed by the USDP&C could not have possibly worked. A brief review of the patent revealed that major controls shown in the patent went connected to ground with an obvious short circuit. In other words, if anyone had tried to use the device it would have gone boom. Obviously, the device worked as many were manufactured and sold. However, when the patent was reduced to print the draftsman made a major error and what was submitted to the Patent Office was totally defective. Does that tell you how little the patents submitted to the PO are examined? The patent application should have been declined since the short circuit indicated clearly in the schematic prevented the device from working.

If any person spent some time looking over many of the applications the substantial errors missed by the examiners would be an indication that the Paten Office must be more political than technical.

Immense Opportunity in Blackstone Group

It is much too early to tell just what BX will give to (or take from) the investment world. Let's wait amd see what happens after all the smoke settles.