Investor Upset That Transmeta Isn't Solely Focused On Suing Companies For Patent Infringement
from the focus,-people,-focus! dept
Back in 2006, we noted that hyped-up Transmeta, the semiconductor startup that Linus Torvalds worked at for a while, had pretty much failed in the marketplace and was making a last ditch effort to sue companies for patent infringement. It was a pattern we had seen over and over again: a company that can't actually compete in the marketplace responds to its own misfortune by trying to drag down the company that did succeed, using patent infringement claims as the anchor. However, it appears that an investor in Transmeta is now upset that the company didn't take this "sue everyone who did a better job than us" strategy far enough. Specifically, Transmeta settled with Intel a few months after filing a patent infringement lawsuit, and the investor is upset that the company didn't fight it out for a higher return. So, now, he's hoping to buy out the rest of the firm, shut down the parts that are actually doing something and producing value, and instead just turn the whole company into a patent lawsuit machine. Just as Thomas Jefferson originally envisioned.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
If you have a problem with the rules, bitch about the rules, but don't blame people for making sure they get the most out of what is allowable.
Do you take tax deductions? Would you be pissed if you missed some? Isn't that the same thing?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Playing by the rules
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Playing by the rules
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Err
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
sklg kejglk kjvb sekugs akjfka faukfg
Heck you guys are not even worth my shitty comments
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: sklg kejglk kjvb sekugs akjfka faukfg
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Malice? So following the law and going aftersome according to the law is malice? Are you a friggen idiot? Answer me this, if you got hit by a truck and a lawyer came up to you and said he could get you $10 million from the trucking company and not charge you a dime, would you say no?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
The person you have described is called and "Ambulance Chaser".
Ambulance chaser is a derogatory phrase sometimes used to describe a trial lawyer who specializes in representing accident victims. It typically refers to attorneys who solicit business (sometimes called barratry) from accident victims or their families at the scene of an accident or disaster (or immediately thereafter).
In the United States, such conduct violates Rule 7.3 of the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Anonymous Idiot
Could you actually come up with an example that mattered? In this case it would be you walking on the street and a lawyer coming to you and saying he can win $10 million for you if you say that asbestos hurt you, even though you never got touched by it. Now that's an example closer to truth.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Transmeta is a bad example
Intel did their best to copy the improvements as soon as the Transmeta chip was launched and used it's near monopoly power to push Transmeta nearly out of business.
So to say that Transmeta "just couldn't compete" is doing a disservice. They pretty much invented the flexible power chip, and their tech was stolen.
I know you're not a big believer in patents in general, but this is a case of real engineering, real invention, and a lot of capital spent trying to shake up the system. Transmeta should be the poster child for the non-patent troll; the one you point out when people patent things and then never bring it to market.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Agreed: Transmeta a -very- bad example
1) Semiconductor manufacturing is a very cut-throat business with extremely high barriers (Cleanroom build, tool install and qualification just to name a few) to entry.
2) Intellectual Property issues make it very difficult to find leading edge fabrication partners willing to run your wafers (and you raise entry barriers even higher thanks to the margins on doing so).
3) Those same IP laws make it very difficult to buy access to existing developments at a fair (to all) price, and only the biggest player(s) can afford to have a team develop a replacement in the blind properly.
4) Isn't there some issue about the x86 instruction set where right now only Intel, AMD, and VIA have licenses; I keep hearing AMD's license to it vanishing being one reason no one will buy them/allow them to go in to bankruptcy...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]