It’s been a rather nostalgic couple of weeks as I have been reading about and touching base with pioneers in the wireless data field. The New York Times recently profiled Geoffrey Goodfellow, who founded RadioMail, a pioneering wireless e-mail company.
John Markoff, the reporter who wrote the article, has written about Geoff a few times, and also has interviewed me a few times about wireless subjects.
The article reports how Geoff helped establish the wireless e-mail business, but didn’t patent his idea and, thus, hasn’t reaped millions of dollars that he might have obtained with a patent.
No regrets
“Geoff Goodfellow is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who came up with an idea that resulted in a $612.5 million payday,” the Times says. “But he will never see a penny of it.
“He remains little known even in Silicon Valley and, perhaps most surprising, he doesn't really mind.”
That $612.5 million payday is the sum NTP will receive from the patent dispute agreement Research in Motion negotiated.
Patent issues
The article says, “For legal and technology experts, the tale of Mr. Goodfellow's pioneering work is evidence of the shortcomings of the nation's patent system, which was created to reward individual creativity but has increasingly become a club for giant corporations and aggressive law firms.”
Geoff isn’t particularly bothered by not having patented his ideas, the article says. “’You don't patent the obvious,’ he said during a recent interview.
“’The way you compete is to build something that is faster, better, cheaper. You don't lock your ideas up in a patent and rest on your laurels.’”
Remembrance of things past
A couple of days ago I wrote a little bit about the early days of wireless data. A Canadian author is writing a book about Research in Motion and I provided some information to him this morning.
I did not get involved in the RIM/NTP patent dispute, even though I was asked, and don’t intend to start now!
But I have been involved in wireless, including wireless e-mail, for almost 28 years. Geoff truly was a pioneer in wireless e-mail.
E-mail postage
I wrote a fair number of articles about RadioMail and RIM in my Mobile Data Report newsletter in the late 1980s through mid 1990s. I remember Geoff saying that e-mail should be charged like postage: Something like $.25 per message, the way stamps were $.25 per letter.
Or, at least, I think that’s what Geoff used to say!
I believe Bill Frezza (whom I also mentioned in the previous weblog article) thought wireless e-mail wouldn’t take off until the cost was $.01 per kilobyte.
Perhaps Geoff and Bill were both wrong. Wireless e-mail in the United States seems to have taken off with flat rate pricing, but it takes more than the right price to create wireless data industries.
Update (4-24-06): Geoff discusses the early days of RadioMail and his philosophy in an audio file on The New York Times' Web site (see left). I don't know if there's a direct link to the file, but so far you may find it on the "Technology" section of the site. It runs somewhat over eight minutes and comprises six sections.
It brings back lots of memories for me.
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