Intel was spawned by Fairchild and while I think that they were never as inventive as Fairchild they did in their early years produce some moderately important inventions. It is unfortunate that those days were long ago and that today Intel has been reduced to scavenging for new ideas as exemplified by by their appropriating OLPC's ideas for a low cost notebook.

In my opinion Intel is a legend in their own minds. Intel is also a legend in the business community and the inventor community for their predatory conduct and for having a huge appetite for other's intellectual property. I believe they are arrogant bullies who routinely abuse the process of law to bankrupt inventors.
I had little doubt when I heard about the OLPC Intel cooperation that Intel was fattening OLPC for slaughter. I think it was a PR tactic to mute public outrage, and that Intel always planned to undermine OLPC. Just look at Intel's history.

And while you are looking at the history of Intel's conduct consider that they are a founding member of the Coalition for Patent fairness & PIRACY (Piracy Coalition). The Piracy Coalition is made up of tech companies who are past their inventive prime, parasitic tech companies, insurance and banking interests.

Like most aging tech companies Intel lost its ability to produce significant inventions decades ago. I believe that Intel maintains their market position through anti competitive predatory behavior and through scaling to reduce production costs. But it is not done through invention but rather through the ability to make large capital expenditures. I have little doubt that Intel will follow in IBM's footsteps as they both continue to stagnate.

They and other washed up tech companies try to compensate for this by filing large quantities of incremental improvement patents. But quality is not the same as quality, and when you couple Piracy Coalition members arrogance and what I believe are seriously impaired ethical standards it is easy to see how they got where they are today.

It is important to note that these company's filings of large numbers of inane patents is not only ineffective at saving them from being held accountable for their patent piracy, it is also most of the cause for an ever increasing patent pendency.

In my opinion, what Piracy Coalition members lack in an inability to produce significant inventions they make up for in lobbying, political palm greasing and underhanded public relations campaigns. All are operating in spades with regard to the OLPC matter!

Ronald J. Riley,


Speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.patentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.