Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ BearItAll on Thursday 02 August 2007 16:28 : \____
>
>> Mark Kent wrote:
>>
>>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>> Google: Kill all the patent trolls
>>>>
>>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>>| Google's head of patents believes the U.S. patent system is "in crisis".
>>>> `----
>>>>
>>>>
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/02/google_calls_for_us_patent_reform/
>>>>
>>>
>>> Just in case anyone's confused about who the friends and enemies are in
>>> this game, Google are looking for major change, whilst Apple and IBM are
>>> maintaining that there isn't anything wrong with the system.
>>> Really!
>>>
>>
>> IBM did pick up a lot of patents in the rush when everyone was grabbing
>> anything available in the hopes of charging us all for it.
>
> They recently relinquished (is that the right word?) quite a few as well. 150
> for the open source community...
>
>> But IBM did make it clear that they were claiming them simply to ensure we
>> wouldn't be ripped off in that way. At the time it looked as if however
>> stupid the patent idea was that it was going to be legally binding.
>
> Weren't they getting predatory with Amazon though? Something about eShopping?
>
>> Now it just looks like a lot of wasted money and effort because it was so
>> badly done. It is hard to see it being reversed, so probably all they can
>> do is abandon it.
>
> A recent NYT article showed that patents are a waste of money bad RoI for the
> shareholder.
>
IBM's history has been to use the patents defensively, but I think more
recent events with patent-trolling companies are changing the landscape
quite significantly. I do not believe that IBM have any intention of
using or attempting to use such patents against the FLOSS world, but
also, as I keep saying, software patents are not valid outside of the
US, Canada, Mexico and Australia anyway.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
