Re: Jim Rojas' Tech-Help Beta

[Frank Olson <Use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

tourman wrote:

>
> RHC: Good for you Frank ! I fully intend to add the Tech Help on my
> website (with Jim's permission). I'll publish the link when it is
> available.
>

Thanks, Bob.  Jim put a lot of hard work and effort into making this
resource what it has become.  While I agree that a company must protect
it's intellectual property, I simply can't fathom what Brinks is going
on about.

Their customers sign what's called a PSA in which they acknowledge that
Brinks retains ownership of the equipment.  Brinks installs equipment
into new homes without a PSA and the buyer purchases the home with all
the installed equipment present.  I don't care if Brinks puts their name
and/or stickers on the equipment.  It's really no different than my
buying a house with a Maytag dishwasher pre-installed.  Does this mean
that "Maytag" owns my dishwasher??  If the sticker states "Property of
Brinks" what's it doing in my house and where does it say in my contract
for purchase that I don't own everything that's in the house once it's
cleared escrow.  Does Brinks have the right to come into MY house and
remove that equipment?  I don' think so.  Unless Brinks puts a lien on
the property, there is no way they can defend their ownership if I buy
it "free and clear".  Now, if I had signed a PSA with them on my
previous house, there may be some recourse available to them (seeing as
how it states that the contract "survives" the sale of the old premises).

As to intellectual property being present in the software or web links
Jim made available on his website, that's pure baloney.  First of all,
Brinks doesn't "own" the patent on the Scantronic chip, or the Arrowhead
programmer.  If they've purchased the products they may have some rights
to it, but so far as I can see, there is no "property of Brinks" labels
on any of the programmers Jim presented as "samples" to the court.
Because the programmer can actually access Brinks equipment, does that
automatically make all Arrowhead and Scantronic programmers Brinks
property?  I don't think so.

They also don't "own" the Patents on the Vista series panels that form
the basis of their new 3000 and 4000 alarm controls.  That is OEM to
them from Honeywell (who very well may have designed a programmable chip
specifically for their use).  That doesn't prevent someone from
comparing boards and determining that replacing one particular eeprom
chip with the off-the-shelf generic Honeywell one will turn it into a
standard Vista 20.  There is NO HACK involved.  All you really need is a
chip puller from Rat Shack.  Would a customer that did this violate
their PSA?  You bet they would.  Would finding and comparing information
readily available on the Internet infringe on their rights?  That's for
a judge to decide and from the looks of it, that question isn't even on
the table.  Brinks is going to win "by default" against Jim, and not on
the merits of the case.  Sableman will no doubt take full credit for
being in a position to exploit the Law, but it will be a very hollow
victory and certainly won't advance their intellectual property defense.

By way of analogy, I happen to custom build computers.  I buy individual
parts from various different manufacturers.  Asus motherboards, Western
Digital hard drives, LG monitors, and DVD drives, Intel CPU's.  If I put
all these parts together, I can't say I "own" the rights to the
completed computer.  What differentiates the computer I build from the
one you do?  Mine will most likely run LINUX.  You're probably "stuck"
on WinDoze, but even if they were running the same software, how is my
"right" to the finished product any different from yours?

Their Patent on the alarm keypad may be enforceable, but to be honest
it's really no different from all the other alarm system keypads that
are out there (and probably don't even have the features a lot of them
do).  It performs the exact same basic functions though.  I understand
"Bell" owns the Patent for the telephone.  Does that mean *all*
telephones?  Including our own system?  I don't think any of that
technology was available to Mr. Bell at the time that he invented his
particular telephone and I believe Panasonic would argue that it's
"their" technology.