Re: [News] Technology Companies Whine About Patent Mess They Created

[Robert Newson <ReapNewsB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

BearItAll wrote:

> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
> > Tech companies pile on patents, complain about clutter
> >
> > ,----[ Quote ]
> > | When a Microsoft Corp. patent application for educational technology
> > | appeared in January, there was one problem: the idea had already
> > | been developed as "BlueJ" nine years earlier, and by academics
> > | with no connection to the software behemoth.
> > `----
> http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/tech-companies-pile-patents-complain/story.aspx?guid=%7BD8990A9C%2D2DF2%2D4893%2DA75F%2D488A6896D3EC%7D&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo
>
> > http://tinyurl.com/3bujne
>
> So, MS get this far, find someone else already has this technology (or is it
> really just an idea this time?) in place.

Are they developing without looking at patents and have come up with the 
same idea (which could imply obviousness and so the MS patent must, by 
default, fail), or did they sneak a look at BlueJ and then try to pass it 
off as their own hoping that nobody would notice the original?