Results of "downloading compressed program images" request

[Brian Cuthie]

For those who think the US Patent and Trademark office actually serves
any useful purpose, I present the following counter-evidence:

The big news today is that Motorola is being sued by a company called
"General Patent International" for infringing on the following patent.
Does anyone really think that General Patent International is interested
in the free interchange of ideas and information?  These guys sound more
like that new breed of lawyers who run around and buy patents just to
sue everyone they can find.  Bigger fish, like Motorola, are more
interesting, of course.

If this patent is enforced, no one can make anything with two connectors
on it.  God Bless America.

Pat Reg# 4,603,320 
ABSTRACT
"A connector interface for enabling communications between first and
second data handling systems wherein the data in the first system is
arranged in a first type of format and the data in the second system is
arranged in a second type of format, includes a connector housing with
first and second sets of electrical contact elements exposed at
different portions of the housing. Circuitry contained entirely within
the housing operates to convert data transmitted to the first set of
contact elements from the first data handling system into corresponding
data in the second type of format for transmission to the second data
handling system through the second set of contact elements, and to
convert data transmitted to the second set of contact elements from the
second data handling system into corresponding data in the first format
for transmission to the first data handling system. One set of
electrical contact elements may, for example, be arranged to extend out
from the connector housing in two parallel rows to allow the elements to
be directly connected to corresponding terminals arranged in a dual in
line configuration on an outside printed circuit board. The connector
arrangement greatly simplifies the design and construction of data
processing systems requiring specific interfaces between certain parts
of the systems, such as between data terminal equipment and data
communication equipment employing serial binary data interchange."