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IBM solves world's 'paper or plastic' crisis
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| Patent 7,407,089 (available here) is a method and system for identifying a
| customer and displaying whether they like paper or plastic bags without the
| need for uncomfortable questioning.
|
| From the patent's description:
|
| "However, at conventional retail locations, the customer is likely to be
| asked for their packaging preference each time the customer passes through a
| cashier station, resulting in unnecessary inconvenience for both the customer
| and the cashier.
|
| What is needed is a more flexible system and method for determining packaging
| preference that overcomes some of these limitations. "
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/06/ibm_paper_or_plastic_patent/
Wanted: Political Candidates, Must Hate Software Patents
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| If you live in the U.S., it's hard to escape news about the upcoming
| presidential elections, but that isn't the only thing happening on the
| political front. There's a movement afoot to locate congressional candidates
| in the U.S. House and Senate who support copyright reform and other
| technology issues, and mobilize the open source community to get them
| re-elected.
|
| GeekPAC, originally known as BytesFree.org, is a grassroots campaign designed
| to build political support and effect change in legislation surrounding net
| neutrality, copyright and DCMA reform, patent reform, and other issues near
| and dear to the open source and tech communities at large
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http://ostatic.com/170788-blog/wanted-political-candidates-must-hate-software-patents
Related:
IBM wins patent glory, but seeks reform
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| Then there's the open-source problem. The collaborative programming
| community, of which IBM is a significant part, shares technology
| freely with licensing terms that often are at odds with corporate
| patent licensing arrangements. IBM has made various attempts to
| put the open-source realm at ease, for example, by sharing some
| patents with open-source projects and pledging to avoid some
| patent lawsuits.
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http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6149272.html
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