Re: [oc] legal advice

[Jean Masson <Jean.Masson@lium.univ-lemans.fr>]

Hello Damjan,

Stricto sensu, MIPS meaning is : Mega Instructions Per Second. I have found this acronym for years
in books.
If you could find a book or a Data Sheet, where the term MIPS is used, published BEFORE creation of
MIPS
corporation, they could not protect the name MIPS. A precedent is Altair, the first released
microcomputer's name,
Altair name (a star's name) was used before, in an anticipation TV novel, so they could not protect
their brand.
But if MIPS is illegal, use SPIM, anybody could understand !

If descriptions of chip don't use materials of direct MIPS' origin (copy of files from ex members
of MIPS company),
and are based upon public released materials, for me, there is no patent infrigement. Nobody is
owner of elements
of CPU : pipe line, FPU, etc. If a black box behaves like a 'true' chip, this is not a copy. This
is a strength of HDL.

This case is typical of american behaviour, where lawiers earn much than engineers...

Best regards,

Jean MASSON

Damjan Lampret a écrit :

> Hello All,
>
> is there any intellectual property lawyer on this list that could give some
> legal advice about this http://www.opencores.org/2nd_mips_letter.pdf ?
>
> regards,
> Damjan

--
To unsubscribe from cores mailing list please visit http://www.opencores.org/mailinglists.shtml