Guest Commentary on Why Patent Reform Needed
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| Patents cranked out by the millions [with tens of millions of claims] by the
| USPTO necessarily include a large percentage of clearly invalid or
| over-broadly-claimed patents, because almost all patents are allowed by a
| single, young, limited-experience, patent examiner after an average of only
| 17.9 total patent application examiner processing hours, with only a very
| limited search of the huge present body of prior art. Thus, many patents
| simply do not deserve a several million dollar hurdle to even challenge their
| validity or valid claim scope.
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http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/2007/11/guest-commentary-on-why-patent-reform.html
Related and recent:
Apple seeks patent for compactable disc adaptor
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| That seems pretty obvious to me. Doesn't prior art in a variety of industries
| (including flat-pack furniture and telescopes) have these concepts covered?
|
| I have no fundamental problem with the idea of patents, but to my mind the
| degree of innovation behind this application is too trivial to deserve
| protection.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/15474/1054/
Amazon Sneaks One-Click Past the Patent System
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| By changing the word 'a' to 'the' and adding the phrase 'purchasable through
| a shopping cart model,' lawyers for Amazon.com have apparently managed to
| reinstate two of CEO Jeff Bezos' 1-Click Patent claims that were rejected a
| month earlier.
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http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/22/1756237&from=rss
Amazon Patents Net Present Value-Based Delivery Dates
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| theodp writes "Just in time for holiday shopping, the USPTO has awarded
| Amazon a patent for Generating Current Order Fulfillment Plans Based on
| Expected Future Orders, which explains how to use modeled net present value
| to adjust an order's delivery date favorably or unfavorably based upon
| expectations that the customer will have high-profit orders in the future..."
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http://techdirt.com/articles/20071120/015521.shtml
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