> I'm not sure why you find it so hard to believe that the Eink group has created 2000 display patents to use against competitors.
I guess it is because I work in the display industry and I've never heard them talked about this way within my industry, conferences, symposiums or other peer group events. I've only seen this here on HN and on Boing Boing and some blogs which referenced an HN post making similar claims. I'll try to give you an analogy. Imagine if someone told you Microsoft group has created 2000 software patents to use against competitors and that they intend to defend theier intellectual property. Would you then believe if I told you Microsoft is blocking progress in the software industry? Because that's what the prior post is claiming. Incredible claims ought to at least have some proof or evidence, shouldn't they?
I would believe Microsoft was blocking progress if only they were making operating systems or office suites or whatever it is they patent.
It isn't just a claim though - I pointed to an actual lawsuit. If there was a single eink competitor being used in products outside of China, I would agree with you. TCL claims to have something in the works, so maybe change is coming.
> If there was a single eink competitor being used in products outside of China
I'd say there are far fewer Microsoft operating system competitors than there are eink competitors. Also eink is an fpl manufacturer not a whole industry. Meaning they're a component supplier and there's tonnes of alternatives, memory-LCD is what I promote, and even within the electrophoretic space, there's ClearInk, Shenzhen Wenfeng, and several others. In any case, it is unclear to me what the main argument is. If you are trying to say eink is blocking progress, then I don't see any evidence for that, and that 2012 lawsuit in fact seems like an entirely reasonable lawsuit since based on what I understand, 2 engineers who had worked for Eink in Boston moved to China, started Guangzhou OED and then produced the exact same pigment and particle formulations and started selling knockoff displays with even the exact same TFT backplanes and resolutions.
I guess it is because I work in the display industry and I've never heard them talked about this way within my industry, conferences, symposiums or other peer group events. I've only seen this here on HN and on Boing Boing and some blogs which referenced an HN post making similar claims. I'll try to give you an analogy. Imagine if someone told you Microsoft group has created 2000 software patents to use against competitors and that they intend to defend theier intellectual property. Would you then believe if I told you Microsoft is blocking progress in the software industry? Because that's what the prior post is claiming. Incredible claims ought to at least have some proof or evidence, shouldn't they?