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[News] USPTO: Ruined by the Rich, for the Rich Only

  • Subject: [News] USPTO: Ruined by the Rich, for the Rich Only
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:29:48 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Where to go re: software patent

,----[ Quote ]
| You can patent pretty much anything these days as long as you're able to pay 
| for it. When I looked into obtaining a US patent several years ago I was told 
| to budget $20k for the patent process (1-2 years), plus another $5k annually 
| for "patent maintenance" if the patent was actually granted. Only then could 
| I have the "privilege" of suing those who infringe on my patent - by paying  
| outrageous attorney and court fees, of course.    
`----

http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.581390

Croatia and Norway sign up to EPO as patent body outlines need for reforms

,----[ Quote ]
| In the past 25 years, the volume of patent applications at the EPO has 
| quadrupled to reach 208,500 in 2006, and is expected to increase further. 
| Much of this growth is attributable to the enhanced global activity of 
| companies, to emerging economies such as China, India and South Korea buying 
| into the patents system, and the increasing importance of new technologies, 
| such as information and communication technology and biotechnology.     
`----

http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/ebulletins/showissue.php3?page=/548/2691/9605

Holy crapola!

Troll Call and Other Statistics for December 2007

,----[ Quote ]
| We reached the end of 2007. All the other blogs are reporting an overall 
| decrease in IP litigation, a cutback from 2006, or are reporting the 
| slightest of increases in patent filings from 2006 to 2007. That's simply not 
| true. By the real count -- the number of defendants sued for patent 
| infringement -- 2007 was a record year. In fact, here's my headline: "2007 
| shows a 30% increase in patent litigation over 2006, fueled by a 40% increase 
| in the Eastern District of Texas." And certainly from the number of patent 
| cases brought by non-practicing entities and so-called patent trolls, it was 
| a year that saw a tremendous increase in both the quantity and diversity of 
| these entities.         
`----

http://trolltracker.blogspot.com/2008/01/troll-call-and-other-statistics-for.html

So, who /doesn't/ like patents?


Related:

Microsoft patents Wish Lists

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has been granted a patent for electronic Wish Lists. The patent, 
| 7,315,834, was filed in April 2005 and granted on New Year's Day. 
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/03/microsoft_patents_wish_list/


Microsoft hopes to patent 'automatic goodbye messages'

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is trying to patent automatic goodbye messages, including "Have a 
| great afternoon!" and "Ciao, Harry!" 
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/07/microsoft_tries_to_patent_automatic_goodbye_messages/


Microsoft Deems Emotiflags Patent-Worthy

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft said you could count on them to improve patent quality.
| For an example of how they're raising the bar on innovation, check
| out this just-published patent application for Emotiflags, which
| Microsoft explains solves the problem of indicating an emotion 
| associated with an email message. At the risk of infringing on the
| patent, this one Makes Me Mad!"
`----

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/16/038207&from=rss


Microsoft patent hints at pay-as-you-go OS

,----[ Quote ]
| A Microsoft patent application from June 2005, published only today,
| titled "System and method for delivery of a modular operating system"
| may signal a fundamental change for what an operating systems stands
| for and how it is sold.
`----

http://www.istartedsomething.com.nyud.net:8080/20061215/pay-as-you-go-os-patent/


A Patent Lie

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft sang a very different tune in 1991. In a memo to his 
| senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had understood how 
| patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented, 
| and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete 
| standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will 
| patent some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of 
| our profits as they want."
`----

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/opinion/09lee.html


,----[ Quote ]
| ...Thanks to Mr. Gates, we now know that an open Internet with protocols 
| anyone can implement is communism...
|  
| ...Mr. Gates' secret is out now--he too was a "communist;" he, too,
| recognized that software patents were harmful-until Microsoft 
| became one of these giants...
`----

http://news.com.com/Bill+Gates+and+other+communists/2010-1071_3-5576230.html?part=rss&tag=5575731&subj=news.1071.20


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


MS Seeks Patent On Virtual Fuzzy Dice

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft just published a patent application for an adaptive heads-up user 
| interface for automobiles. It covers, among other things, virtual fuzzy dice 
| that appear to move with automobile movements.  
`----

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/23/1310253&from=rss


Microsoft patents frustration-detecting help system

,----[ Quote ]
| Is this patent a harbinger of a dystopian future where computer users' 
| biorhythms will be monitored to increase efficiency? Unlikely. The idea, 
| which was birthed at Microsoft Research, is simply a more advanced version of 
| user focus group testing that Microsoft (and most other software companies) 
| have been doing for years now. Still, if your employer asks you to patch on a 
| pair of electrodes before sitting down to work in the morning, my advice is 
| to find another company to work for.      
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080103-microsoft-patents-frustration-detecting-help-system.html


Will Microsoft Put The Colonel in the Kernel?

,----[ Quote ]
| "The kernel meets The Colonel in a just-published Microsoft patent 
| application for an Advertising Services Architecture, which delivers targeted 
| advertising as 'part of the OS.'   
`----

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/14/043200


Microsoft patents the mother of all adware systems

,----[ Quote ]
| The adware framework would leave almost no data untouched in its quest to 
| sell you stuff. It would inspect "user document files, user e-mail files, 
| user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status 
| messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)," and more. How could 
| we have been so blind as to not see the marketing value in computer status 
| messages?     
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070717-microsoft-patents-the-mother-of-all-adware-systems.html


Microsoft stole KittenAuth, renamed it and claimed it as their own.

,----[ Quote ]
| The Microsoft Asirra project sites Oli as a source yet the Yahoo news story 
| did not. I can only imagine that the more and more the Asirra project is 
| pushed into the public domain, the less Oli will be cited as having the 
| original idea. This isn't actually fair and I'd be very very upset if I was 
| him. The idea is excellent yet the credit certainly won't be passed in his 
| direction anymore. Any financial gain from the project won't pay royalties to 
| him either and it's not like he could patent the idea originally.      
`----

http://www.seopher.com/articles/microsoft_stole_kittenauth_renamed_it_and_claimed_it_as_their_own_


Microsoft files further adware patent

,----[ Quote ]
| An example is given of a user browsing to a folder full of MP3 media files - 
| such browsing would alert the adware monitor that the user may need MP3 
| playing software, decoders, soundcards or other related items, and the 
| appropriate advertising could then be displayed in a popup.   
`----

http://www.virusbtn.com/news/2007/09_14a.xml


,----[ Quote ]
| 'MS are key sponsors of "Voices For Innovation" aimed at MS customers
| and designed to put a positive spin on software patents and enlist people
| to lobby on their behalf.'
`----

http://aralbalkan.com/939


Patent creators say Microsoft lied to get better deal on DVR patents

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is facing a patent lawsuit over its failed Ultimate TV DVR 
| system. The lawsuit, filed by joint venture company Intellivision 
| (no relation to the Mattel console), accuses the company of making 
| fraudulent and misleading claims in order to acquire intellectual 
| property without having to make royalty payments. 
`----

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070604-patent-creators-say-microsoft-lied-to-get-better-deal-on-dvr-patents.html
http://tinyurl.com/2bpmv7


Fun with Google Patent Search: Why does the maker of Windows hold a patent on
a door hinge?

,----[ Quote ]
| The patent was granted in 1998 and received a dribble of publicity
| in 1999, but I'm hard pressed to find any meaningful explanation for
| a door hinge being in the control of the company that made Windows famous.
`----

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/9721


Commerce Secretary names Schramm to innovation panel

,----[ Quote ]
| He will be part of a lineup that includes the Microsoft Corp. CEO
| Steve Ballmer, 3M CEO George Buckley, UPS Chairman and CEO Michael Eskew,
| IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano and Wal-Mart Stores Vice Chairman John
| Menzer.
`----

http://biz.yahoo.com/bizj/061206/1386414.html?.v=2


Did Microsoft just patent sudo?

,----[ Quote ]
| 1985, huh? And when did this Microsoft patent happen? It was filed in
| 2000. Well gee, that doesn't make sense. How'd they get the patent?
| It certainly falls under the category of "obvious" if there's prior
| art such as sudo.
| 
| What makes this whole thing funny, though, is something I saw a couple
| days ago. Head over to Builder-AU and listen to Peter Watson from
| Microsoft. He says,
| 
|   "User Account Control is a great idea and strategically
|   a direction that sort of all operating systems and all technology
|   should be heading down"
| 
| Excuse me? Does he really believe this is all Microsoft's great new
| idea?
| 
| In the end, this seems like a patent that Microsoft will hold up and
| say "we have a patent and Linux is violating it!" They won't ever
| sue on it though (just leave the threat hanging to scare away
| potential users), because then they could have the patent revoked.
| It's better for them to just wave it around.
`----

http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com/2007/05/did-microsoft-just-patent-sudo.html


Microsoft Wins in Supreme Court; AT&T Ruling Overturned

,----[ Quote ]
| In a stunning 7-1 decision with extremely broad implications in
| the field of patents and patentability, the US Supreme Court has 
| overturned a Federal Circuit ruling that was in favor of AT&T,
| and has apparently affirmed Microsoft's arguments that software
| coupled with the device on which the software is installed
| cannot be considered patentable.
`----

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Wins_in_Supreme_Court_ATT_Ruling_Overturned/1177944397


If you hate Microsoft you’ll really hate this: Patent app calls for “enforcing”
ad playback within downloaded multimedia files

,----[ Quote ]
| From my read of a Microsoft Patent application just published today, 
| technology is being proposed that will make it impossible for users who 
| download multimedia files to play these files unless advertising messages 
| inserted within these files are viewed.   
`----

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=2916


Microsoft patents Tivo for commercial breaks

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has patented the idea of inserting fresh advertisements
| into old recordings on personal video recorders, to ensure you see
| today's ads even if you're watching a recording from last week.
`----

http://www.itwire.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7946&Itemid=1063


In Microsoft Patent App, TV Watches You

,----[ Quote ]
| In a just-published patent application for delivering Advertising that is 
| relevant to a person, nine Microsoft inventors spell out plans for using 
| cameras, remote controls and biometric sensors...  
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070730/162255.shtml


Advertising that is relevant to a person - classic case of patent trolling

,----[ Quote ]
| Patent application Advertising that is relevant to a person just filed by 
| Microsoft is a splendid example of patent abuse or patent trolling.  
`----

http://www.ventureitch.com/?p=372

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