Michael and List,
I thought it might have been a hoax, so I checked it out at the P&G Web
site, and the release is there (http://www.pg.com/about/news/nsearch.htm,
search for "phast"). But I agree with Michael that this doesn't add up to
more than a lot of corporate hype. If I were a shareholder of P&G and I saw
them giving away technology with commercial potential of $1 billion a year,
as stated in the release, I would be asking management some very tough
questions. I'd say this is a very fancy way of denying that they haven't
figured out how to make it work and they don't want to bother trying any
more. However, I also agree with Elaine that this is an excellent
opportunity for MSoE faculty and students to work on a good, tough, and
potentially valuable problem.
Best regards,
Marshall Burns
Marshall@Ennex.com
Ennex Corporation, Los Angeles, USA, (310) 824-8700
www.Ennex.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Rees <rees@michaelrees.com>
To: rp mailing list <rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi>
Date: Wednesday, October 27, 1999 23:32 PM
Subject: Very Curious announcement
>Dear list,
>
>who posted that announcement that Proctor and Gamble are donating over
>40 patents to MSOE?
>
>I find this very interesting and very puzzling. Now, granted I stick my
>head in sculpture all day long so forgive me my innocence. Is this
>announcement an indication that P&G sees this field as so unprofitable
>that they're just going to give it away? Certainly if anyone has the
>resources to develop this it would P&G. Making prototypes just doesn't
>compete with Pringles eh? Or? Any speculations on why they did this? I
>wonder how much the MSOE lawyers spent pouring over the patents for
>infringements and the like. Does a gift like this make it difficult to
>sue a school if they develop infringing processes? Sorry, it just
>doesn't make any sense to me. Did they retain some important piece of
>the puzzle.
>
>Really, if anyone could explain this to me, I would be really
>interested.
>
>best,
>--
>michael rees effective immediately
>suite Number 301 www.michaelrees.com
>1015 Washington Ave 314 494 7393
>St. Louis Mo 63101 msr@michaelrees.com
>
>
>
>For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
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