So what happened to Firewire? Three things. First, Apple, who owns the patents for FireWire, killed its Golden Goose by demanding a license fee of several dollars for each PC, which Intel and most computer makers found to be economically untenable. This opened the door for USB. Intel gave the USB technology to their OEM partners royalty-free (as they do today), and IEEE 1394-FireWire-was quietly dropped from the PC 98 specification. Apple backed off their high-priced position, down to today's 25¢-per-PC license fee, but the damage was done