On 5 Aug 98 at 8:33, Leslie O. Connally wrote: > HGross, > I have the same question, it appears to me someone should > challenge > this patent. I do not see how it could be enforced anyway, but then > I have not read the patents, of which I believe there are about 5. I > plan on getting copies of the patents, but if I understand the > basics, I don't see how they achieved a patent. FYI, if you don't know it already: under the URL http://www.patents.ibm.com/ you can search, read and mostly download (as scanned tiff(?)-file) nearly all U.S. patents. Regards Matthias ----------------------------------------------- Matthias Mansfeld Elektronik * Printed Circuit Board Design and Assembly Am Langhoelzl 11, D-85540 Haar, GERMANY Phone: +49-89-4620 0937, Fax: +49-89-4620 0938 E-Mail: [log in to unmask] Internet: http://home.t-online.de/home/matthias.mansfeld ################################################################ TechNet E-Mail Forum provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8c ################################################################ To subscribe/unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the body: To subscribe: SUBSCRIBE TechNet <your full name> To unsubscribe: SIGNOFF TechNet ################################################################ Please visit IPC's web site (http://www.ipc.org) "On-Line Services" section for additional information. For technical support contact Hugo Scaramuzza at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.312 ################################################################