The other is to enter into an agreement with Mr. Townshend to pay him for the use of his intellectual property. The second option could have a major financial impact for the modem vendors depending on the demands of Mr. Townshend. Although there is a possibility that this issue could be resolved in the very near future, it is more likely that it will be another year before the standard for this technology is set. My friends, coworkers, myself, and probably millions of Internet users have eagerly awaited the arrival of these modems since they were announced last fall. Now we find out that there is yet another stumbling block that need to be removed.
People seem to be obsessed with retrieving more data faster, at work and at home.
Maybe that is because there is so much information to retrieve, it seems to take forever to arrive, and we have so little time. It is almost inconceivable that after nearly a year since the announcement of this new technology, and with the standard being so close, that a patent claim has been unearthed. As an employee of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this article generated almost as many questions as the information it supplied.