Why were TCP/IP and OSI model not commercialized?

Answer 1

My personal opinion is that the development of this networking technology was created in educational institutions through public funds, largely by the miliary, and spanning international lines put the technology in the public forum. Because it was not created by a private company and involved so many institutions, there was no single entity who could lay claim to the patent.

TCP/IP and OSI were originally military projects. The networks of the day (token ring, etc) would crash if one node went out, rendering the entire network useless. Thus, any network established by the government was vulnerable to enemy attack. Giving funding to several universities, the military and these universities worked to develop a networking technology that would allow a computer network to remain functional if any particular node was destroyed.

That's my deduction, anyway.

If as little as three universities, the United States military, all in conjunction with allied militaries involved, who would hold the patent to commercialize the technology?

Answer 2

Standards which get commercialized die. Proprietary methodologies get left behind. They are closed communities. There are many world organizations which convene to decide on best approaches for interoperability: ANSI, IEEE, W3C, etc. An RFC document/white paper is created, and these methods are open and available to anyone. It takes a MAJOR corporate effort to push a standard - like Microsoft with some software formats or Sony with their ingenious (but often proprietary) schemes.

If it isn't open architecture or open source, it had better be really, really good. :)

Answer 3

There is also something else to consider. If Company A makes a protocol proprietary, then so could Company B and Company C. When you buy a computer, you would have to choose which company's protocol to use, and then you would have to have software to make your Company A computer compatible with Company B computers, but which software would you buy--Company A's that talk to Company B's or Company B's that talk to Company A's?

It would get far too complicated with all those closed protocols clogging up your system.