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Comments on news posted 2004-01-19 12:13:35: Patenting everything from scrollbars to the internet itself, opportunistic individuals and corporations are making a mess of the nation's legal system with claims teetering on the bizarre. ..
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 Ak2pacalypse
join:2003-01-23
Missouri City, TX | the internet i guess we all have to pay Al Gore...
He invented the internet, remember? | |
| ATTGUY2
join:2002-06-02
Fremont, CA
| Outrageous Claims A few years ago when I was a production manager for a PC manufacturing company, I had a guy call me up and told me he was from company XYZ who had invented the protocols used in the BIOS of every VGA video card, and that they were filing claims against any company who used any VGA card that wasn't licensed and registered with his company.
I told him he was nuts.... A few weeks later I received some info from him in the mail which contained legal documents and patent information which all looked like it was on the up and up.
I turned it over to the legal department who discovered this guy was a flim flam artist and threatened to turn him over to the attorney general. He went away real quick. | |
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mrchris
We don't miss you Bush
Premium
join:2002-10-01
North Babylon, NY | Re: Outrageous Claims The guy/company attempting to patent hyperlinks needs to be shot and hung out to dry | |
| | | dave
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Outrageous Claims said by mrchris  :
The guy/company attempting to patent hyperlinks needs to be shot and hung out to dry
I disagree with that. It's a free world. You can submit any claim you want.
The persons who need to be taken out back and shot are the patent examiners who came close to granting said patent (or maybe they even did grant it, I forget: in which case, shoot them dead and then shoot them some more).
If the system is so lax that it grants patents for existing art, then people will submit claims for patents on existing art. Fix the system. | |
| 
Morac
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
 ·Comcast
| Patent system broken Correct me if I'm wrong, but in order to patent something doesn't it have to be an idea that is a very specific way of doing something that doesn't currently exist. In order for the patent to be violated another device must do exactly what the patent describes (all the steps).
It also can't be so rediculously simple that someone with no knowledge in the field else would come up with the same idea given the same stimulus (or something like that).
So for example clicking a button in a browser wouldn't be patentable, but clicking a button which generates a specific set of instructions to be executed could be. In this case if clicking a button caused a different set of instructions to execute the patent wouldn't be violated even though the action is similar to the patented actions.
Of course it doesn't work that way. Just searching the patent database comes up with some very rediculous patents. | |
| 
b_zen
Premium
join:2002-07-24
Saint Louis, MO
clubs:
·TTNet
| What You Need To Realize Is... What you need to realize is that companies who work like hell, get broke in the R&D, sweat 20hours a day to come up with a killer application want to preserve some rights on their deed; and that's alright with me. The above description applies to me.
Now, what you also need to understand is that the reason companies patent is NOT to get money from the actual users, but in order to protect themselves from other bigger companies or "better" funded start-ups who would capitalize on your work, and simply kill you from the start. That's why you spend $40K and up for a simple multiple-claims patent.
Also, a patent gives your "small/medium" company value to the eyes of investors or other companies, which in turn, would pay you more to "gulp you in"...
--
Vote NO to Bush&Co. in 04! | |
| | dave
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-04
not in ohio
·Verizon Online DSL
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: What You Need To Realize Is... Sure, been there, done that, look my name up in the USPTO.
HOWEVER, it is still the case that any old unworthy crap can get patented regardless of prior art. This actually makes the arms race worse, since now you (and I) feel obliged to patent your marginal ideas just in case they'd otherwise get caught up in some imbecilic sweeping patent.
There's nothing wrong with patenting technology as a general concept. What's wrong is that the system is thoroughly broken so that undeserving nonsense like '1-click shopping' can be patented, or even worse, someone can attempt to patent hyperlinks some 40 years after Vannevar Bush wrote about Memex and 30 years after Ted Nelson wrote about Xanadu, both of which described the idea.
The Patent Office is not up to the job, technically. | |
| GunnarDanne
join:2002-12-02
Crown City, OH | hi, i'm a liar hello, i invented kissing | |
| | | niko01
join:2004-01-19
Houston, TX
| BT Case They always leave out who BT sued.... it sued Prodigy, who it thought was the runt of the litter. And, this lawsuit was filed BEFORE SBC swallowed Prodigy. The BT lawsuit was not just "thrown out" like an old pair of shoes - Prodigy kicked BT's ass. Remember when the Internet was the product of quirky visionaries? It wasn't that long ago...
Ahhh, but that is gone now and you have scavengers like BT... | |
| gatzdon
join:2002-10-25
Lake Zurich, IL | Software should be copyrighted, not patented!!! Remember when SBC started to try collecting licensing fees for the "structured document" format (or whatever they called it). Basically it was just the use of frames in a web page with a menu in one of the frames. | |
| 
richk_1957
If ..Then..Else
Premium
join:2001-04-11
Minas Tirith | I first heard something like this 8 yrs ago I was on an interview & picked up a copy of WIRED magazine
It seems they were trying to patent the use of the @ symbol | |
| 
Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY | My patent rules I have patent on Bullsh*t I figure Washington DC alone owes me trillions of dollars. | |
| 
quibbly
Premium
join:2003-02-07
Sugar Land, TX
| Patent on Letter "I" and word "and" I now have a patent on the letter "I" and the word "and".
For every use there is a .10 cent usage fee. This includes any variation of the letter "I" or the word "and".
so, if you use "I.T." to describe "Information Technology", you owe me 10 cents. So, as I can tell, I should be a rich man soon.
Later
Quibbly | |
| 
N10Cities
SILENCE I Keel You
Premium
join:2002-05-07
Roland, OK
clubs: | I patent 1's and 0's I hereby patent the use of 1's and 0's (binary) in any mathematical calculation on any computing device........who hooo!!!! | |
| PersonelDaze
join:2003-03-04
Sharon, MA
| Patent on air???? At least air has been in the public domain long enough to prevent someone to put a patent on it.
Maybe that's the answer. Tie up that portion of courts with these foolish lawsuits so it takes 25 years to process, then whatever they are putting a patent on will be officially in the public domain...
How old is the internet exactly??? | |
| 
Guido Jacobs
@137.229.x.x | if you own it, you must take care of it! Work for it, my friend. Its more than just patenting it and forgetting about it...if one tiny, insignificant problem arises, its ALL YOUR FAULT! | |
| 
fd9
join:2002-11-11
| Mike Rowe now has an eBay auction more than$30,000 If you haven't read about the case between M$ and Mike Rowe already,
quote:
In what could easily be mistaken for an Onion story, Microsoft has unleashed the full fury of its lawyers on 17-year-old Canadian high-school student, Mike Rowe, demanding the handover of his Internet domain.
The domain? MikeRoweSoft.com. No, seriously.
Victoria-based Mike is currently studying maths and chemistry and plans to study computer science at Victoria University next year. He registered the domain in August because he thought it would be cool to have a site that sounded like the famous company to show his Web designing skills.
The Beast of Redmond however reckons that the phonetic domain infringes its copyright and insists Mike hand it over or face the consequences.
Mike told us that when an email from Microsoft’s Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar arrived on 19 November laying out its complaint, he was “amazed and appalled”. He replied saying he didn’t want to hand over the domain and didn’t feel there was any risk it would damage Microsoft’s name.
He then got another email. “They responded to this email by offering to give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses in return for the domain name. This came out to be $10; the amount I paid for the domain. This made me feel insulted. I had spent a lot of time building up my site and I had only been offered $10 for my work. I responded by asking for $10,000, which I regret doing now, for my work and domain name.”
The full article is here: »www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34955.html
But NOW, Mike Rowe has put up an eBay auction evidently selling his "Official Mike Rowe WIPO Book" along with the 25-page letter he recieved from the lawyers. 6 days left, and already worth more than $30,000. Crazy... Here's the link to see for yourself: »cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi···ory=2312
Looks like Mike will be getting alot more than he bargined for!!:D | |
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