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No sign of any Community patent progress, despite Verheugen's optimism
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| The vice-president of the European Commission, Gunter Verheugen, claims that
| he remains hopeful that a way forward can be found in negotiations over the
| creation of a one-stop Community patent covering the entire European Union.
| In an interview published at the end of last week, Verheugen - who is so
| committed to patents he fell asleep during a press conference on the subject
| in May - saluted the efforts of the Portuguese and Slovenian presidencies in
| getting talks moving. However, he did not mention France, the current holder
| of the presidency, despite the interviewer’s claim that the Community patent
| was a priority for the French.
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http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=71e659d1-e0b6-459a-b911-8ee70e8a0e90
TiVo is still being a loser:
Supreme Court Refuses to Rule On DVR Patent
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| The Supreme Court is refusing to disturb a $74 million judgment against Dish
| Network Corp. for violating a patent held by TiVo Inc. involving digital
| video recorders.
|
| [...]
|
| TiVo sued in 2004, alleging that EchoStar, a satellite broadcaster, infringed
| on TiVo's patented technology that allows viewers to record one program while
| watching another. EchoStar Communications changed its name to Dish in late
| 2007.
`----
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=36959
Recent:
Latha Jishnu: The mouse that bit Microsoft
PATENTLY ABSURD
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| Here’s what Gates wrote in an office memorandum in 1991. “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. . . I feel certain that some large company will patent some
| obvious thing related to interface, object orientation, algorithm,
| application extension or other crucial technique.”
|
| This was the year after Microsoft launched Windows 3.0, the first of its new
| operating systems that would become hugely popular across the world. Yet,
| three years down the line, Microsoft had changed from a kitten that was
| content with copyright protection to an aggressive patents tiger. In 1991,
| Microsoft had filed fewer than 50 patent applications whereas last year it
| was awarded 1,637 patents, almost a 12 per cent increase in the number of
| patents it received in 2006. According to IFI Patent Intelligence, the rise
| in Microsoft’s patents portfolio bucked the general trend in 2007 when the
| number of patents issued by the US Patents and Trademark Office dipped by 10
| per cent. Apparently several thousand of the company’s filings are still
| pending.
|
| All this may prompt the reader to conclude that there is indeed a direct
| correlation between IPR and growth — and wealth — as the company claims. Not
| true, says Mark H Webbink, a US Supreme Court lawyer who is a recognised
| voice on IT issues. Charting the company’s revenues, R&D spending and patent
| filings from 1985 onwards, he shows that the spike in patent filings occurred
| long after the Microsoft “had become well established and was being
| investigated for its monopolistic practices”. Webbink contends that patents
| did not spur the launch and rapid growth of the mass market software
| industry. On the other hand, patents have become a threat to software
| innovation, he warns.
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http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=330566
Intellectual Property Regime Stifles Science and Innovation, Nobel Laureates
Say
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| Patent monopolies are believed to drive innovation but they actually impede
| the pace of science and innovation, Stiglitz said. The current “patent
| thicket,” in which anyone who writes a successful software programme is sued
| for alleged patent infringement, highlights the current IP system’s failure
| to encourage innovation, he said.
|
| Another problem is that the social returns from innovation do not accord with
| the private returns associated with the patent system, Stiglitz said. The
| marginal benefit from innovation is that an idea may become available sooner
| than it might have. But the person who secures the patent on it wins a
| long-term monopoly, creating a gap between private and social returns.
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http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=1129
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