Ask most mechanics and do-at-home auto tinkerers what the J1962 is, and will tell you it is their bridge to auto diagnostics. What started off as an interface to monitor car emissions that EPA and various governments around the world mandated has provided transparency to “what’s under the hood” even as cars became more and more complex.
As a result thousands of independent garages provide an alternative to car dealers, and do a fine job at it. And no matter what a BMW or Ford dealer thinks of an independent garage, they don’t go around talking in terms of “their J1962 violated my proprietary IP” and they are “corrupt” and “illegal”. They package 3 or 5 year warranties in the car price and offer other extended support to win the service business fair and square.
In software, we don’t have that so software vendors file court documents like Oracle just did against Rimini Street with words like “corrupt” and “illegal”. In the meantime, they announced nothing to attract customers to stay with them with 3 or 5 year warranties packaged in to the price of the license or something else of value to the customer that a third party maintenance vendor does not provide.
So, attorneys will argue over thousands of pages and millions in fees, when it boils down to a few words:
“Customers deserve a choice”.
also posted on the Enterprise Advocates blog
