August 18, 2006
TiVo Patents
A United States federal judge has ruled that the satellite TV provider EchoStar must halt the use of its digital video recorders because it infringed patents held by competitor TiVo.Posted by Jaani at 9:17 PM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2006
Innovation Tautologies
A report on the review of Australia’s innovation patent has found that the system meets its objectives and that changes are not warranted at this time.Posted by Jaani at 9:22 PM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
Injunction to Restrain Alleged Patent Infringement by eBay Denied
The Supreme Court of the United States of America has unanimously rejected an application by MercExchange seeking a permanent injunction against eBay to restrain its conduct of online auction services allegedly in contravention of MercExchange’s patents. The case concerned the following facts:
At issue are two patents filed for in 1995 by MercExchange, which began life as an online auction site similar to eBay. One of its patents covers the concept of an online auction; the other is for what they called a direct-buy patent, which works almost identically to eBay’s familiar Buy It Now feature.
A few months after MercExchange filed its two patent applications, eBay began operations and grew to dominate the online auction scene. … eBay subsequently entered into negotiations with the company to license the patents. In 2001, negotiations broke down and MercExchange subsequently sued the online auction giant for patent infringement.
Since then, eBay has found itself on the losing end of most of the court activity related to the case. … [The Court of Appeals] upheld the lower court’s finding [that the patents were infringed] and issued an injunction against eBay’s use of the Buy It Now feature, which it then stayed pending the inevitable appeal to the Supreme Court.
Similar threats last month forced the hand of Research in Motion, manufacturer of the popular BlackBerry email device, which settled with the patentee for the princely sum of US$612.5m to avoid just such an injunction — which would have spelt chaos for its customers and business. The unavailability of an injunction to support a prima facie case of infringement will come as a sigh of relief to eBay — at least for the time being — and may significantly alter the way disputes of this nature are negotiated in the future.
Posted by Jaani at 8:16 PM | Comments (0)
May 7, 2006
BlackBerry Faces New Patent Squeeze
After 10 years of relative obscurity, Visto Inc. hopes its name will soon be linked to the patent case that shuts down the BlackBerry e-mail service. It also wants to be known as the one company in the wireless e-mail business that's not going to be the target of patent litigation. It's sued five companies over its wireless patents in Texas federal court, and so far, a jury has found three patents had been infringed and awarded the company $3.6 million. But some warn that Visto may be overextending itself.Posted by Jaani at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
Microsoft Seeking to Patent Automatic Censorship
theodp writes "Microsoft is back at the USPTO, this time seeking a patent for the automatic censorship of audio data for broadcast, a system and method for automatically altering audio to prevent undesired words and phrases from being understandable to a listener as originally uttered."Posted by Jaani at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
RIM Strikes Back, Files Countersuit Against Visto
SilentOne writes "Research In Motion Ltd. launched an all-out assault on competitors yesterday, countersuing its latest legal nemesis and introducing software to pre-empt imminent launches by other challengers. The countersuit also gives RIM a chance to move the patent battle to a courtroom where it has a better chance of beating Visto. Visto filed suit against RIM on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, which reportedly favours patent holders in 92% of cases heard by the court. Jim Balsillie, RIM's co-chief executive, said the company wants the trial moved to the Dallas area, where RIM's U.S. headquarters are located, for practical reasons. Meanwhile, RIM is giving away a free software package, valued at US$3,000, to hook the e-mail accounts of small businesses and consumers up to BlackBerries instead of competitive devices from Palm and Microsoft."Posted by Jaani at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)
Microsoft and Autodesk Infringed Patents, Jury Rules
z4 Technologies awarded $133m
An entrepreneur has been awarded $133m by a jury in a Texas courtroom after winning his claim that two of his anti-piracy software patents were infringed by Microsoft's Office and Windows XP, and Autodesk's AutoCAD programs.…
Posted by Jaani at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
More Bad News for Research in Motion: Another BlackBerry Patent Lawsuit
According to Bloomberg News, 'Research in Motion, which paid $612.5 million to resolve a patent lawsuit in March over its BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, has filed a complaint challenging another company's infringement claims.
Research in Motion based in Waterloo, Ontario, asked a federal court in Dallas to rule that the BlackBerry does not infringe patents owned by the Visto Corporation, a company in Redwood Shores, Calif, that provides e-mail software to cellphone companies. The suit was filed Monday, the first business day after Visto sued Research in Motion in federal court in Marshall, Tex.
The lawsuit will allow Research in Motion, whose United States distributor is based in Irving, Tex, to contest which court will hear the case.
In March, Research In Motion paid $612.5 million to NTP Inc, based in Arlington, Va, to end a five-year patent fight.'
Posted by Jaani at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
April 27, 2006
Rambus Wins $306m from Hynix in Semiconductor Patent Case
‘Rambus has beaten Hynix Semiconductor in its patent infringement case, with a court ordering its rival to pay $306.5 million in damages.
A jury found that Hynix had infringed 10 of Rambus’ patents in a verdict announced on Monday in [the United States] district court in San Jose, [California]. The award covers compensation for Hynix sales in the United States between June 2000 and the end of 2005, according to a Rambus statement. Hynix may also have to pay interest on the amount awarded in the verdict.
The verdict will likely send shivers through a PC industry already skittish about patent lawsuits. It will also likely prompt the settlement of similar suits.
Memory designer Rambus had alleged that Hynix and other large memory manufacturers infringed its patents in producing DDR DRAM — the most common type of memory in PCs today — as well as in making SDRAM and DDR2 DRAM. The vast majority of PCs and servers produced in the past several years use one of these types of memory, and variants of DDR are expected to be incorporated into PCs for the next several years.
Posted by Jaani at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2006
Who Are the Real Winners in the Blackberry-RIM Settlement? The Lawyers!
The big news last month was that Research in Motion (‘RIM’) finally reached a settlement with NTP Inc (‘NTP’) in relation to RIM’s production and marketing of the BlackBerry push-email device, which NTP alleged infringed its patent. Pundits were amazed by the terms of settlement, pursuant to which RIM agreed to pay NTP some US$612.5m. (This is a little less surprising when one remembers that NTP was threatening to seek an interlocutory injunction against RIM, which would have had the effect of shutting down the BlackBerry email service — not to mention plunging hundreds of firms into a communication stone age, and thousands of lawyers and executives into BlackBerry withdrawal.)
Many have criticised NTP’s suit as mala fides and its subsequent extraction of the settlement as ‘bordering on extortion’, especially since there are strong doubts about whether their patent is actually valid. Pegoraro, for example, has argued that the NTP patent should never have been granted, and that the damage claimed by the company is puzzling at best in light of the fact that it had made no effort whatsoever to commercialise the intellectual property it claimed gave rise to a remedy.
However, the real winners are not NTP or its shareholders (though they would also be laughing, I’m sure) but rather their lawyers. Wiley, Rein & Fielding, a mid-tier firm in Washington DC, took the case on a contingency basis, and now stands to take away one third of the $612.5m settlement in fees.
To put this in perspective, that’s substantially more than the firm normally earns during an entire year. Regardless, NTP still escaped with a pretty sizeable (if ethically questionable) return on their investment. Further, as Mobile Magazine notes, NTP and its shareholders will still get to keep the remainder of the $612.5m settlement even if the relevant patent is eventually rejected by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Patently ridiculous or karmic hilarity?
Posted by Jaani at 7:14 PM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2006
Court Rejects Sony's Appeal against Patent Ruling
A federal judge rejected an attempt by units of Sony Corporation to overturn a $90.7 million jury verdict in a patent case that could affect a forthcoming generation of Sony videogame machines. At issue is what game makers call haptic technology, which is used to make game controllers vibrate in response to action on a TV screen. Immersion Corp. filed a suit in 2002 alleging that Sony’s PlayStation products infringe Immersion patents on the technology. A jury in Oakland, California, ruled in Immersion’s favor in September 2004.
Posted by Jaani at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)
United States Government Sides against eBay in Patent Infringement Case
The US federal government has taken a position against eBay in a patent dispute that threatens to shut down one of the online auction site’s popular shopping features. The Office of the Solicitor-General said in a brief filed with the Supreme Court that eBay wilfully infringed on patents held by MercExchange and should be enjoined from using its “Buy It Now” feature, which allows users to buy goods at fixed prices rather than compete in auctions.
Posted by Jaani at 5:23 PM | Comments (0)
RIM Urges Patent Reform
In full-page advertisements in eight United States newspapers, Research in Motion (‘RIM’) yesterday called for urgent patent reforms.
RIM, hitherto beleaguered by a long-running patent dispute with arch rival NTP Inc, recently settled the dispute for the princely sum of $612.5m. Chief Executive Officers Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stated that RIM was pleased to put this matter behind it and ‘remove any uncertainty’ from its customers’ minds. With complete disablement of the Blackberry service a real possibility just weeks ago, the announcement was enthusiastically welcomed by shareholders and customers:
You can rest assured that BlackBerry is here to stay.
As to the lingering question of why the patent system should allow such a bizarre set of circumstances to threaten millions of American customers in the first place, we share your concern. The good news is that this topic is currently receiving much more attention from policymakers and the Supreme Court and we hope the patent system will evolve to close the loopholes and become more balanced.
The complete text of the Open Letter is available on its website.
Posted by Jaani at 4:58 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2005
Creative to Assert MP3 Player Interface Patent
'wild_berry writes "At the London Lauch of their new Zen Vision: M portable media player, Creative Labs boss Sim Wong Hoo told the BBC that he plans to defend their August 2005 patent for interfaces in portable music devices."
Creative chairman Sim Wong Hoo told the BBC News website that the company was already talking to various parties about the patent but refused to be drawn on specifics. 'We will pursue all manufacturers that use the same navigation system', said Mr Sim. 'This is something we will pursue aggressively. Hopefully this will be friendly, but people have to respect intellectual property.'
Of course, it's a lot easier to respect intellectual property that is the product of novelty, skill and labour -- rather than simply being the first in line at the USPTO.
Posted by Jaani at 2:34 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft Responds to Eolas Patent Ruling
'Microsoft is planning to launch a slightly amended version of Internet Explorer that works around a disputed patent for technology allowing web browsers to access interactive application programs, according to reports. In September, the US Patents and Trademark Office ('USPTO') announced that it had reexamined the patent and determined that it was valid.'
Posted by Jaani at 2:32 PM | Comments (0)
Gateway Scores Patent Win Against HP
'Personal computer maker Gateway Inc said on Thursday that the International Trade Commission overturned on appeal an earlier finding that Gateway PCs infringed on some Hewlett-Packard Co patents.'
Posted by Jaani at 2:28 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
Chief Justice Denies Stay in BlackBerry Case
The maker of BlackBerry e-mail devices lost an emergency Supreme Court appeal that sought to suspend a long-running patent suit against the company.Posted by Jaani at 9:46 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2005
One Fifth of All Human Genes Have Been Patented
mopslik writes "A story on National Geographic News cites a study claiming that 20% of all human genes 'have been patented in the United States, primarily by private firms and universities.' While universities hold 28% of all gene-related patents, 63% belong to private firms, with a whopping 2000 patented genes (approximately 67%, or 50% total) belonging to a single firm." From the article: "You can find dozens of ways to heat a room besides the Franklin stove, but there's only one gene to make human growth hormone ... If one institution owns all the rights, it may work well to introduce a new product, but it may also block other uses, including research ..."
Posted by Jaani at 6:39 PM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2005
Direct Infringement Standard Expanded in Web Coupon Case
Stephen M Kramarsky, a member of Dewey Pegno & Kramarsky, analyzes Applied Interact's hold on Web coupons based on 1993 patents which, while intended for coupons linked to radio or TV broadcasts, have been interpreted to patent all electronic delivery of coupons. In the most recent case over these patents in the Southern District of New York, Applied Interact was handed a major victory that greatly expanded the reach of direct infringement.Posted by Jaani at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
Cross-Border Patent Infringement
Robert C. Scheinfeld, head of the intellectual property group at Baker Botts, and Parker H. Bagley, partner at Milbank Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, write that as technology companies expand their development, use and sale of complex software to all corners of the globe, it becomes extremely important to understand the boundaries of U.S. Patent Law. Three recent Federal Circuit cases address cross-border patent infringement and should be of special interest to today's innovators.Posted by Jaani at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
One Lawyer's Amazonian Adventure
Patent attorneys are used to going up against big companies for infringement, but for Pillsbury partner James Gatto, the battle is getting personal. That's because the attorney is fighting Amazon.com for infringement on his personal patent, an almost unheard of situation in the IP legal community. The case has already caused a bit of havoc for Gatto's old firms, including Baker Botts, Hunton & Williams and Mintz Levin, which have all been subpoenaed by Amazon's Kirkland & Ellis lawyers.Posted by Jaani at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft FAT patent rejected - again
On a technicality
The US Patent and Trademarks Office has thrown out two Microsoft patents on its FAT file system. The case had been raised by open source defenders who feared that Microsoft was preparing a legal offensive against Linux based on enforcement of intellectual property rights. But the Patent Office rejected the patents because of an administrative technicality - not because of prior art submitted by the F/OSS team.…
Posted by Jaani at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)
Patent Office upholds Eolas browser patent
Scene set for re-trial
Microsoft has suffered a blow in its battle against a claim that Internet Explorer infringes a web browser patent: the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced this week that it has re-examined the patent and found it to be valid.…
Posted by Jaani at 9:50 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2005
The Ongoing BlackBerry Patent Dispute
'Somewhere along the way, in the six years since Research in Motion Ltd introduced the BlackBerry, the e-mail message device became the company's destiny. Then a federal court injunction in a patent infringement suit threw RIM's future in disarray and threatened to knock the BlackBerry out of the US market. Worse, RIM's tormenter was not IBM Corp, Motorola Inc or some other tech behemoth, but NTP Inc, an obscure patent-holding company in northern Virginia.'
Posted by Jaani at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
Patent Reform: High-Tech Firms Lose Ground to Drug Industry
'Opposition from drug and biotech companies has forced lawmakers to water down a bill cracking down on the so-called patent trolls -- people who get patents for products they never plan to make, just so they might be able to sue for infringement later -- who are bedeviling the high-tech industry. The resulting draft legislation drew criticism from a top Democrat at a hearing Thursday, and a warning from a high-tech group that said lawmakers could be risking the industry's support.'
Posted by Jaani at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
The Law of Unintended Consequences: Patents
'Fortune has an interesting article about the relationship between patent law and innovation. It compares the biotech industry with the computer industry and discusses the effects of the Bayh-Dole amdendment, which has allowed universities to make a lot of cash. But in the process innovation and scientific collaboration seem to have been stifled.'Posted by Jaani at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2005
GPL 3.0 to Contain Possible Patent Retaliation Clause
‘GPL version 3, a draft of which will be released in January 2006, may contain a patent retaliation clause, Georg Greve, the president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said Tuesday. Such a clause would mean that if a company accused a free-software product of infringing its software patents, that company would lose the right to distribute that product.
Joachim Jakobs from FSF Europe said such a clause would only affect companies that used their software patents against free software. “We don’t want to hinder people from using free software if they merely hold software patents”, Jakobs said.
The GPL may also contain a clause to penalize companies that use copy-restricting technologies. “There could be something that addresses this if we can find a sensible way to put it”, Greve said.
“These are things that are being tossed around, but whether, how and in what form it will take place, we don’t know”, he said. “Even [GPL author] Richard Stallman hasn’t sat down to work it out yet.”’
Posted by Jaani at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
September 2, 2005
iPod Comes Under New Patent Challenge
'Raising another legal threat to the iPod music player, Creative Technology said it has been awarded a US patent for a song-navigation technology it claims is used on Apple Computer's market-leading devices. The Singapore-based digital audio company did not, however, say how it would try to enforce the patent. And some experts were skeptical that legal action could succeed at extracting cash from the maker of the world's most popular music players.'
This whole saga strikes me as somewhat bizarre, given that Apple's interface clearly predates Creative's. Why Apple didn't seek to protect what was clearly one of their player's greatest assets is unlcear.
Posted by Jaani at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2005
iPod Patent Dispute Unlikely to Affect Apple's Bottom Line
'Apple Computer lost out to Microsoft in its attempt to patent technology relating to its top-selling iPod music players, but many believe Apple's miscue will ultimately result in embarassment rather than monetary loss. Microsoft developer John Platt filed a patent application five months before Apple, according to US Patent and Trademark Office documents. Apple's application, filed by CEO Steve Jobs and other officials in October 2002, was turned down by patent officials in July.
But due to the intricacies of patent law and to the complex relationship between Apple and Microsoft, Apple will probably not be forced to pay significant fees to Microsoft for sales of the product it developed and popularized.'
Posted by Jaani at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2005
Google Seeks Patent for RSS Advertisements
According to The Register, ‘Google has filed for a patent that covers advertisements in syndicated content’. Application No 20050165615 concerns a method for ‘Embedding advertisements in syndicated content’:
‘Syndicated material, eg, corresponding to a news feed, search results or web logs, are combined with the output of an automated ad server. An automated ad server is used to provide keyword or content based targeted ads. The ads are incorporated directly into a syndicated feed, eg, with individual ads becoming items within a particular channel of the feed. The resulting syndicated feed including targeted ads is supplied to the end user, e.g., as a set of search results or as a requested web log.’
‘Embedding of targeted ads into syndicated feeds and/or user response to the embedded ads is be tracked in an automated manner for billing. The automated targeting and insertion process allows ads to be kept current and timely while the original feed may be considerably older’
Source: The Register
Posted by Jaani at 4:42 PM | Comments (0)
Amazon Tastes Own Medicine: Software Patents in Action
Amazon.com is coughing up $40m to settle a patent infringement case with Soverain Software covering ecommerce patents. Yesterday, Amazon announced in an SEC filing that it had reached a settlement with Soverain, which included a $40m one-time payment, the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims, mutual releases and a non-exclusive licence to Soverain's patent portfolio.
On its website, Soverain describes itself as a pioneer in e-commerce technology, and, on its page history refers to its 'acquisition of Open Market's Transact software product and related intellectual property from divine in 2003.'
Posted by Jaani at 4:32 PM | Comments (0)
Perens Dismisses Torvald's Patent Pool
'Open source activist Bruce Perens has dismissed as inadequate a new IP initiative backed by Linus Torvalds. The Open Source Development Labs' ('OSDL') patent commons project is intended to provide patent protection to open source developers. Perens, speaking at LinuxWorld, compared the patent pool to "spitting in the wind" -- because the patents it contained come from "the wrong people."'Posted by Jaani at 4:07 PM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2005
Microsoft's Bold Patent Move
theodp writes "On Thursday, the USPTO disclosed that Microsoft has a patent pending for displaying numbers in a box to make them stand out. " Check out the images to see the power of this breakthrough patent. That's almost impossible to do without patents.Posted by Jaani at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)
August 11, 2005
Apple loses iPod patents to Microsoft
Apple has certainly been the brand associated with the near ubiquitous iPod, but Microsoft beat its rival by five months when it applied for patents on some of the key technologies inside the music player. Last month the US Patent and Trademark Office rejected Apple's application. But the case is not over just yet and, as The San Francisco Chronicle reports in Apple loses bid on patent, Apple still has some recourse and can appeal to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. Critics are saying Apple could have beat Microsoft to the patent office had it not simply waited...Posted by Jaani at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2005
The Difference Between Software and Drug Patents
Brookings Institute Scholar Ben Klemens has a nice little OpEd over on BI's site about patent reform and why there is an important difference between software patents and other kinds of patents:
However, the key distinction between a drug and a method for using a computer is that few of us own the equipment or have the desire to manufacture drugs. Meanwhile, computers are ubiquitous--and as a result, so is software authorship. If you are reading this at work, there is probably someone in your building writing software right now: perhaps in the form of a company web page, or a script to make the accounting database work better. Thus, a patent on a drug creates potential liability for those companies in the pharmaceutical business, while a software patent creates potential liability for any company with its own website or software customizations, regardless of its business.
Posted by Jaani at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
April 18, 2005
Patent System Flawed, Says IBM
Jim Stallings, vice-president of International Business Machines’ intellectual property and standards group, last week attacked the patent system as rewarding ‘bad behaviour’. He said it encourages the stockpiling and oppressive use of patents by undeserving corporations:
‘There has been a dramatic increase in the number of filings of patents recently, around the world, but particularly in the United States …
What’s happened is it’s challenged examiners’ ability to inspect history, so the bias has been towards granting the patent … It’s a very weak process. We are saying that process needs to be enhanced. It should not only be the job of the examiner … to grant that patent and to inspect prior art.
We think software patents are important, but they should be granted for things that are new … We’re open to sharing information about the patent itself to prove that it’s new. And we think everyone should be held to that standard.’
Considering that IBM was itself granted 3 248 patents in 2004 (and collected USD $1.2 billion in royalties), the cynic might be tempted to accuse IBM itself of hoarding patents! That said, it’s still excellent to see major stakeholders acknowledge limitations inherent in current intellectual property regimes and advocate their reform for public benefit.
Source: Brendon Chase, ZDNet Australia
Posted by Jaani at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)
March 3, 2005
Microsoft Wins Appeal in Eolas Patent Case
This just in from Ars Technica:
[A] Federal appeals court has overturned part of a lower court decision awarding Eolas US$521 million in damages for patent infringement by Microsoft. The case revolved around the use of browser add-ons such as plug-ins, ActiveX controls, and applets, which Eolas (a spinoff of the University of California) claimed were covered under patents granted in the mid 1990s. …
In its decision, the US Court of Appeals said that the jury’s verdict ignored some of Microsoft’s key arguments, and that the case should be sent back to the District Court for retrial. Given the decision of the US Patent and Trademark Office last year on the validity of the patents in question, Eolas’ prospects in a second trial do not look good.
Access the full-text judgment here.
Source: Ars Technica
Posted by Jaani at 3:40 PM | Comments (0)
February 26, 2005
European Parliament to Reconsider Software Patents Directive
The European Parliament has unanimously backed a motion for the European Commission to review its proposal for a software patents directive, in accordance with decisions taken by the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee on February 2 and the Conference of Presidents on February 17:
‘The Newspeak from the European Patent Office has failed to achieve its mission. It’s now time for the Commission to propose a solution to the problems that have been caused by the European Patent Office, rather than to impose these problems on Europe,’ [Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure] president Hartmut Pilch said. Pilch said the Danish government was coming under increased pressure to withdraw its support for the EU Council’s software patent directive agreement of last May.
The push for adopting the directive was halted in December last year when Poland backed away; subsequently Denmark also reportedly said it would join Poland in blocking the directive if it was sought to be pushed through.
Posted by Jaani at 9:29 AM | Comments (0)
February 21, 2005
Amazon Applies for Patent over Personal Search History
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued details of a recent patent application made by Amazon.com, which describes a method for persistently storing and serving event data. Essentially, this allows their search engine, A9, to store and remember personal search histories. The original application was made in 2003, but withheld from publication until the search engine’s launch and subsequent filing of an international patent application.
Amazon’s search technology certainly has promise — at least assuming that tailored results don’t restrict occasional access to information falling outside usual search patterns. With A9, they’ve shown they can beat Google in rolling out the technology; now, in filing first for a patent over it — while Google’s still remains in beta — they’ve shown that Google has some serious catching up to do.
Posted by Jaani at 9:16 PM | Comments (0)
February 7, 2005
Microsoft Applies for Latitude/Longitude Patent, or Some USPO Hilarity
The United States Patent Office on Friday released details of Microsoft’s latest patent application, this time for ‘[a] computer-implemented method of reducing the number of characters required to represent coordinates within a geographically-oriented string’. In other words: latitude and longitude coordinates.
If granted, this patent will join other examples of USPO silliness in the IP Hall of Shame, including:
- Method of Swinging on a Swing
Patented by a five year-old child from Minnesota, United States, this patent describes a way of swinging laterally on a child’s swing (you know, the one where you swing side to side). Unsurpringly, the applicant’s father is a patent attorney.…a user positioned on a standard swing suspended by two chains from a substantially horizontal tree branch induces side to side motion by pulling alternately on one chain and then the other.
- Method of Exercising a Cat (with a laser pointer)
I’ll bear this one in mind the next time I have the urge to enrage somebody’s cat, though when it comes to animal exercise I prefer to provide some incentive:[C]onsists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct.
- [Peanut] butter and jelly food slice
This isn’t quite as capricious as it looks; it’s actually a ‘pre-formed nut butter and jelly food slice that enables a person of any age to easily and quickly make a nut butter and jelly sandwich’. It’s still a little bizarre, however:A volume of nut butter is placed within the hollow region, and is thereby totally encapsulated between the first and second layers of jelly. Also provided is a method and apparatus for making nut butter and jelly slices. Finally, a jelly slice dimensioned to fit on a food substrate and jelly suitable for making jelly slices or nut butter and jelly slices are provided. The jelly slices and the nut butter and jelly slices may be individually wrapped in flexible coverings and packaged in a single food container.
Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from the land of the Whimsical Patent.
Posted by Jaani at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)
February 4, 2005
European Parliament Scraps Software Patent Proposal
In a victory for free software advocates of the European Union, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (JURI) has decided to restart the software patent directive from scratch. Since its introduction in May 2004, the proposal has been heavily criticised as inviting abuse by patent holders and placing overly restrictive covenants upon open source software. It has been postponed on a number of occasions, most recently when Poland intervened to stop the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries from issuing approval:
The Commissioner made clear that ‘any agreement will need to strike a fair balance between different interests’, and that ‘a constructive dialogue between the Council and Parliament will be vital for an agreement.’ He does have the option to deny a new first reading. But given the strength of feeling in the Parliament and the concerns of so many member states in the Council, the Parliament request looks like the best way to [move] forward…
In an area of law so routinely influenced by lobbyists and those with vested interests in locking up software engineering techniques, more balance can only be a good thing.
Source: Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica
Posted by Jaani at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 23, 2005
Using Patents for Good: Open Source DNA
An Australian organisation hopes to give scientists free access to the latest methods in biotechnology via the internet. The Biological Innovation for Open Society (‘BIOS’) will soon launch an open-source platform that promises to free up rights to patented DNA sequences and the methods needed to manipulate biological material. Users must only follow BIOS’ ‘rules of engagement’, which are similar to those used by the open-source software community.
“There are technologies you need to innovate and then there are the innovations themselves,” said Richard Jefferson, founder and director of BIOS in Canberra, Australia. “But those can only happen when there is fair access to the technologies.”
Stockpiling medical patents in the name of free access to science is all well and good, but I think we’ll need to see real reforms to the patent system if organisations like BIOS and Science Commons are to have any chance against the likes of Monsanto.
Posted by Jaani at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
August 8, 2003
The $29.5 Million Haskell Question
Sitting in yet another laboratory class writing demeaningly simple programs, my mouse wanders off in search of news.
First up, from Slashdot, comes word of an interesting roundup of bluetooth headsets. I look forward to the day when I can buy a wireless mobile phone hands-free kit for right side of $100 dollars.
Perhaps more notably, Friedman J has ordered online auction site eBay to pay USD $29.5 million in damages for patent infringement. The plaintiff, a Virginian inventor named Thomas Woolston, claimed that eBay's continued use of their "innovative" 'Buy It Now' option would cause irreparable harm to his company. Though he failed to demonstrate harm, the jury found that the defendant's breach was wilful - meaning that Friedman J could have tripled the plaintiff's damages.
That's all for now. I must return to the drudgery of canned computations.
Posted by Jaani at 1:49 PM | Comments (0)
July 31, 2003
Yahoo Settles Patent Dispute
Internet giant Yahoo has been the latest victim in a series of patent infringement cases filed by NCR, a United States based manufacturer of ATMs and holder of some 1500 patents. Its 15 recent claims are brought against key electronic commerce players, claiming infringement of several of their patents governing electronic transactions. Significantly, the patents involve fundamental aspects of e-commerce, and (were a verdict reached) may have spurned thousands of further claims against leading electronic stores.
The patents included "ordering and downloading resources from computeri[s]ed repositories;" a "computer system for management of resources;" and a "mechanism for dependably managing Web synchronization and tracking operations among multiple browsers," each of which it said was infringed by Yahoo in its web portal implementation.
Like AOL/Time Warner - a recent defendant in an NCR patent case - Yahoo settled out of Court, perhaps fearful of what a verdict for NCR might spell. For now, Yahoo appears content to pay a hefty licensing fee, the terms of which were not disclosed.
Indeed!
Posted by Jaani at 6:28 PM | Comments (0)
