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FW: The January Johnny's Selected Seeds Update

Title: FW: The January Johnny's Selected Seeds Update
This piece from Johnny's Seeds newsletter is something worth noting on this list.  Rob, can you add anything?
-Lon Rombough

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From: "Johnny's Selected Seeds, Rob Johnston" <RobJohnston@johnnyseeds.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 18:49:25 -0500
To: lonrom@hevanet.com
Subject: The January Johnny's Selected Seeds Update

 
 --  Lawsuit update.  If you've been reading the last couple months, you know
that Johnny's has been sued by a company called divine, Inc.  They claim that
we (and a number of other small businesses) have infringed on their e-commerce
patent.  Their plan, apparently, is that we would find it less painful to settle
with them by paying a "license fee" than to fight the suit.  We believe that
ethics support our fight.
We mailed the Illinois court our "answer" to the suit just after Christmas.  
Actually Rita Heimes and her colleagues at the U. of Maine Law School did most
of the work -- *for free*.  To say we are grateful is putting it mildly.  They
have an interest in patent law, and misbehavior around patents, and they want
to help Johnny's!  Our attorney, Bob Stier, it happens, is on the Law School
faculty -- there tend to be a lot of nice small-world stories in Maine.
To learn more, and to follow this matter, there are three websites.   First look
here, the site of  Arcus Digital, our internet service provider:  http://divineintervention.biz/index.html
Next, the U. of Maine Law School's site on patent issues:  http://www.chillingeffects.org/
 Finally, divine, Inc.'s own site:  http://www.divine.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=home
 Many dozens of you have written, some as a general show of support, and some
with bits of intelligence.  Others of you have notified people you know, and
we have heard from them.  We have given up trying to provide each of you with
a proper answer, but we read every email and letter and we value them all.  Thanks
so much for the energy and intelligence.
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