[reilly3000]

If they have patents for technology applied to those items, they would lose the patents if the didn’t enforce them. I’m sure they could arrange a license if you had a use case, and that may be free. Again, if they demonstrate they don’t enforce their IP (which is possibly incredibly valuable) at least in writing they could lose all rights to enforce their patent. I’m no IP lawyer but I paid one a bunch of money once.

[grandmczeb]

This isn’t true. Are you thinking of trademarks?

[reilly3000]

Eh, you’re right, I was confusing it with trademarks. I’ll dust off that pitchfork, there isn’t any good excuse for them naming the industries they would like to own and barring their customers from competing with them.

[m0zg]

This doesn't seem plausible. They have tens of thousands of patents on all sorts of stuff, and people "infringe" on them all day long with no repercussions. Some of those patents will probably be violated when I click the "reply" button under this message.