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No, you're right, it's a specious argument. While digging for data to back it up, I found this interesting quote from Camenzind: There are no patents on t
by kderbe 14y ago
No, you're right, it's a specious argument. While digging for data to back it up, I found this interesting quote from Camenzind:
There are no patents on the 555. Signetics did not
want to apply for a patent. You see, the situation
with patents in Silicon Valley in 1970 was entirely
different than it is now. Everybody was stealing
from everybody else. I designed the 555 Signetics
produced it, and six months, or before a year later,
National had it, Fairchild had it, and nobody paid
any attention to patents. The people at Signetics
told me they didn’t want to apply for a patent,
because what would happen if they tried to enforce
that patent, is the people from Fairchild would come
back with a Manhattan-sized telephone book and say
“These are our patents, now let’s see what you’re
violating”. It was a house of cards – if you blew
on it, the whole thing collapsed.[1]
That's strong evidence that the lack of patent for the 555 was unrelated to its particular success, so I admit I was wrong about that. But if Camenzind is correct in his history, then it sounds like Silicon Valley had a solution 40 years ago to the patent mess: pretend they don't exist!
[1] http://www.semiconductormuseum.com/Transistors/LectureHall/Camenzind/Camenzind_Page9.htm http://www.semiconductormuseum.com/Transistors/LectureHall/C...
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- indiecore 14y ago>sounds like Silicon Valley had a solution 40 years ago to the patent mess: pretend they don't exist! No they had a solution and it was MAD. >The people at Signetics told me they didn’t want to apply for a patent, because what would happen if they tried to enforce that patent, is the people from Fairchild would come back with a Manhattan-sized telephone book and say “These are our patents, now let’s see what you’re violating”. And it worked really well for a time. Unfortunately someone thought they could win and decided to "go nuclear" and now we're all stuck in the middle of a patent war.
- pcamenzind 14y agoThere was an interesting bit of industrial espionage intrigue around the 555, a story he told friends and family many times. As he mentions in his book "Designing Analog Chips" he was at one point stuck on a design that required 9 pins, and that forced it into a 14 pin package. He initially submitted this design to Signetics and it was this design that someone in the company leaked to a competitor. But the larger package bugged him and he kept at it until he was able to get it down to 8 pins which allowed an 8-pin package, much preferable over a 14 pin one. The competitors, unaware of the improved design, came out with the larger 14-pin package and this gave Signetics a significant edge when they started selling the 555.