When the Baby Bells were born in 1984, they came into the world without much intellectual property. The seven regional phone companies, products of the breakup of AT&T, held the rights to their names and little else. AT&T retained control of its IP (until much later when some of it was spun off into Lucent Technologies Inc.). At the time, IP was not a top priority for the companies. Each Baby Bell had a monopoly within its region — the cash flowed, with or without IP protection.
The shock of adolescence hit the Bells when Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This legislative leviathan was intended, in part, to open up the local phone business to competition. As a reward for allowing competitors into their market, the law ended restrictions that prevented the Bells from entering new businesses. The race to diversify began. A few Bells, including Southwest Bell, Bell Atlantic and Nynex tried their hand at digital TV with limited success. Many others launched Internet services.
