Here is a Saturday afternoon fable just for fun. It's not close to anything factual because I'm not taking the time to check the details, but it does have a message.
Some year's ago a very bright wireless engineer from Brooklyn Poly happened to meet a shrewd and crafty hustler from West Philly. They formed a company to invent and deliver the "next stage" of Alex Bell's telephone invention, the "wireless" telephone. (Holy ringtones Batman, is that your Dick Tracy watch I hear?)
The engineer was very capable and he built a solid team that was value oriented and noble. But they were in the lab, and the hustler was out doing his thing. He was buying wireless patents faster than the engineers could invent the right things, and he was rushing off to court to fight giants with anybody he found for cheap to provide legal counsel. Disaster befell the engineers, but it was not of their doing. Sad, very sad.
That was then. Those lead players are gone from KOP now, but the engineers have been busy and VERY productive.
Here is the point. The crap the early KOP management left behind is what we are still mushing around in. It stinks! 2G patents bought for cheap because they were mostly worthless, a huckster image prosecuting those scambait patents, and a track record of taking any kind of cheap payoff to go away. That was the rap on International Mobile Machines Corp, and changing the name to InterDigital Communications Corp did not shake the rep with folks like Jorma who happens to call the shots at Nokia Corp these days.
Catch my drift? Maybe Jorma still thinks he is dealing with the KOP hustler who will take a cheap payoff and go away if you stomp your foot and act gruff. Well, he better take another look IMO. THOSE guys are selling lightening bug juice bootlegged out of university labs under a new logo these days. There is a new sheriff in KOP wireless land. Name is Goldberg, Howard Goldberg. (think theme from James Bond movie). Howard is a straight shooting lawyer/cpa dude who needs to be taken for serious when there are contracts to be drafted, edited, and signed. (more James Bond theme music) LOL......
Things will change soon after that general message gets to Jorma IMO. Could be this weekend, or when a court decision gets handed down sometime later. The message will be the same whenever it gets received. KOP is for real. It's time to stop fighting a ghost of the past. Beeda, beeda, beeda,....... That's all!... LOL
