From: mmaster@parnasus.dell.com (Michael Masterson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: TIES and T. Nixon
Date: 2 Oct 92 15:26:26 GMT
Organization: Dell Computer Co

gtoal@ibmpcug.co.uk (Graham Toal) writes:

>In article <q6lflds@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com> vjs@rhyolite.wpd.sgi.com (Vernon Schryver) writes:
>:My gut reaction was to go find a hammer and "educate" all of the Hayes
>:modems in reach.  I found myself unthinkingly swearing to put a stop to
>:some ISDN business with Hayes.  (I think have regained control, but it
>:was close.)  Press stuff should never offend customers, potential
>:customers, or friends of customers, and that stuff was offensive.

>Tony can tell Hayes management that my company will *not* be buying
>Hayes in future for just this reason.  Sorry, but using lawsuits
>to stifle fair competition isn't on.

from InfoWorld, September 28, '92, pg 45:

Hayes' escape sequence ad earns federal court's censure

by Shawn Willett

In separate rulings, a federal court has called an ad by modem maker
Hayes Microcomputer Products "deceptive" in it's claim that rival
products are unreliable.

A federal court in Minnesota has ordered Hayes to stop the
advertisement, which illustrates a stick of dynamite under the
headline: "Tick, Tick, Tick. Boom! You're dead."  It first appeared
this summer in computer publications, as well as in Time and Business
Week.

In it's ruling, the court said the Hayes ad implies without
substantiation that modems using a non-Hayes escape sequence could
terminate data transports in midtransmission or even destroy data.

Multitech Systems and other modem makers use Time Independent Escape
Sequence (TIES) to avoid paying royalties on Hayes' proprietary escape
sequence.  Multitech is still contesting the validity of Hayes patents
and is suing Hayes for unfair business practices.

The court ruled the ad deceptive because the data sequence that might
cause an interruption in a competitor's modem was not likely to be
found in most data files.  In fact, the court noted that even Hayes
could not show the escape sequence occurring naturally in data.

In a separate injunction -- prompted by a complaint from Sierra
Semiconductor, maker of TIES modem chip sets -- the court said that
Hayes couldn't use language that implies that TIES modems are bound to
erase or destroy data.

In the Sierra case, the court collected evidence showing that a TIES
interrupt is extremely rare.

"The court said we could point out the differences, that we could
redesign the test kit, and go ahead with a new ad." said Dennis Hayes,
president of Hayes.

Meanwhile, distributors said the negative ads were having little
effect on sales.

"We have not seen a decrease in sales [of Hayes' competitors'
modems]," said Barry Hamilton, a distributor of Multitech and other
modems.
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Hmm, maybe there IS some justice in the world (grin).




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Michael Masterson                                   mmaster@parnasus.dell.com