Patent Lawsuit So Bogus That The Judge Ordered Sanctions And Attorney's Fees
Paid
,----[ Quote ]
| However, the judge noted, sternly, that the patent holder and the law firm
| that was handling the case (which had also worked on the patent) clearly
| decided to ignore what the patent actually said about it being for infrared
| cameras. This practice is more common than it should be. Even when claims are
| written to be narrowly focused, there's always some wiggle room, and many
| patent holders bring lawsuits on technologies that are pretty far from what's
| in the claims -- usually hoping that the accused will settle rather than take
| the issue to court.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20081205/0158153029.shtml
The Technological “Dark Age”
,----[ Quote ]
| There are plenty of good ideas that we read about every day that will
| substantially increase the quality of our lives. Imagine for a moment that we
| find out we can easily harness Solar Energy for our energy requirements. In
| order to make it technologically feasible, considerable research needs to go
| into it. This research needs money. I can imagine Oil Companies being very
| interested in this research. Not in order to further it, but to throttle it.
| Nothing could be simpler for them, than to talk to one person, buy his or her
| patent for their latest invention, and let it collect dust on the shelves.
|
| [...]
|
| Another example is how major corporations like the RIAA are trying to
| throttle p2p. The RIAA would be exceedingly happy if the entire Bittorrent
| technology was scrapped, along with all the good that comes of it. But why go
| so far? The RIAA claims that even ripping CD’s to your harddisk is illegal.
| They would be happy if that technology was scrapped as well.
`----
http://citizeneconomists.com/blogs/2008/12/09/the-technological-dark-age/
Innovation lessons from the 1930s
,----[ Quote ]
| Many companies hesitated to innovate during the 1930s. Consider, for example,
| patent applications as a proxy for resources devoted to innovation.
`----
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Innovation_lessons_from_the_1930s_2266
Related:
Big businesses boast of patent benefits, for small businesses
,----[ Quote ]
| A report published by an EU task force on intellectual property claims
| that small businesses benefit from a patent system, despite lacking
| almost any participation by the small business community.
|
| Instead, the report, titled IPR (intellectual property rights) for
| competitiveness and innovation, was written up almost entirely by
| large corporations and the patent industry.
|
| [...]
|
| The report does note objections from the likes of patentfrei.de and
| Sun Microsystems, which were recorded at some length in the report.
| But this does not appear to have impacted the conclusion of the
| report in any way
|
| [...]
|
| Jean-Pierre Laisne, of ObjectWeb, an open source software community,
| said that he found the report useless: participants were told that
| all their contributions would be recorded but at the end only
| those of Business Software Alliance and Microsoft were used.
`----
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/99155/big-businesses-boast-of-patent-benefits-for-small-businesses.html
Telling the Truth About Software Patents and Innovation
,----[ Quote ]
| Would abolishing software patents, then, lessen innovation among large
| companies? Again, no. IBM, Microsoft and Oracle were founded before software
| could be patented. They couldn't afford to quit innovating simply because
| patent protection became unavailable.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20071101145010612
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