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40 Comments
- cheerio, on 01/08/2009, -1/+26Even without prior art, allowing such a concept to be patented for a number of years is ridiculous. It's not right that some company/person can sit at home, and come up with IDEAS on what code to write, and then patent that. Imagine if the concept of a firewall was patented, or the concept of a driver, or the file system, RAD development tools, protected memory space, process scheduling, etc, etc. This guy basically had a patent on a shoutcast server for quite a number of years now. Eventually everything can be done easier, with new programming tools and ideas, much of everything becomes easily accessible for any programmer. So why are we allowing companies to come up with ideas of what will happen naturally in a few months - few years at most, and then put decade long patents on them? Doesn't make sense to me. Especially with tech patents there are constantly 2 companies fighting over something they have patents for and that the other is using, maybe because it was the natural evolution of computing/tech anyways. Patents are for things people cant easily just make, like algorithms for mp3, zip, mp4, etc.
.02 - phosphite, on 01/08/2009, -5/+27Digg this up if you think software patents are *****.
- ubernoggin, on 01/08/2009, -2/+21Someone has to get the tech patents under control. In this case, though, you've got a lone inventor with his patent... and meanwhile you've got Microsoft and IBM racking up ridiculous numbers of patents year after year.
- Daumen, on 01/08/2009, -1/+19A stupid patent is a stupid patent. It shouldn't matter if Goliath owns it or if David does.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -1/+17Every programmer knows that LOGIC will carry from syntax of one programming language to another. With the many solutions, some boxed and some very custom, it is getting VERY difficult to not accidentally imitate an existing process.
Patents should be only for material things and should have a shelf life without renewal.... - flatliner81, on 01/08/2009, -0/+10I worked for the EFF Patent Busting program when I was in law school, and from my experience they were pretty up-front about the technologies they were going after. If you look at most of the parties they go after, they are either individuals or small companies that seem to use really, REALLY generalized patents to sue larger companies that commercialized the technology. I'm not saying that is wrong or right - that is how the IP law in America currently works, and so they are just playing the game - but just because they look like Davids doesn't mean they are virtuous.
- meed, on 01/08/2009, -0/+9Tech patent have been out of control. If what I understand people simply patent concepts reguardless of the code or hardware used to make those concepts reality.
Go EFF. - nahsrocketeer75, on 01/08/2009, -3/+12Patent Busting Project doesn't have to be right in every instance to be deserving of support (not that I'm suggesting they're wrong here). *Somebody* should be trying to identify the bogus ones and going after them simply for the greater good, as opposed to waiting for a big company to get picked on and fight back. Sometimes they don't fight very hard.
- aljamiat, on 01/08/2009, -2/+10With the ease of applying for patents today versus 20 years ago, I think that more and more patents are issued that ARE bogus or just not really "novel" inventions, just a tweak or change on something obvious. I don't know who is in the right in this case, but I do think its a crucial issue.
- whiledo, on 03/25/2009, -0/+7EFF those patent trolls!
- MJPana, on 01/08/2009, -0/+6what?
- mleaman, on 01/08/2009, -0/+3Maybe they could bust Hasbro's patent on collectible card games while they're at it?
- inactive, on 01/09/2009, -0/+3Cool can they focus on Apple next.. then Microsoft..
- theghoul, on 01/08/2009, -1/+4Go EFF, donating $10^2 now.
- xLSDx, on 01/08/2009, -0/+3"EFF could have learned the facts from the public records or by contacting me."
Haha, yeah, I'm sure you would have given them the true facts. - Lunarbunny, on 01/09/2009, -0/+2How about Namco's patent on loading screen minigames...
or the recent Worlds.com MMO *****. - Enlightenment, on 01/09/2009, -0/+2Kill the patent trolls!
- dsmx, on 01/08/2009, -0/+2I believe computer code patents have been banned in Europe.
- MatthewDuke, on 01/08/2009, -1/+2They do have a shelf life without renewal. 20 years from the date of filing for utility patents, 14 years for design patents.
- raada, on 01/15/2009, -0/+1Sorry you are wrong. If you work for a company, sure you will file it but the company will own it.
Unless you are unemployed/selfemployed most likely the company you work for will claim the fame and you wont get a cent... - MatthewDuke, on 01/08/2009, -0/+1"It's not right that some company/person can sit at home, and come up with IDEAS on what code to write, and then patent that."
I understand your point, but I wanted to mention that it takes about $20,000 to obtain a patent and it's usually about a 2-4 year process. Sure, a person can "sit at home" and come up with ideas, but that person also has to spend a lot of time and money if she wants to protect that idea with a patent...that's if she can get past the patent examiner. Most people and small companies are not interested in such an undertaking... - raada, on 01/15/2009, -0/+1People with ideas is good. Filing a patent for something that is not an invention is not. How can someone manage to file a patent on a window in like Windows...? Software patents are pretty silly in general.
Patents in the US goes through too easily. US Patents have turned out to be good for lawyers and not to help creative people. - Shootfast, on 01/08/2009, -0/+1The greater good...
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -0/+1Seer systems also invented really bad usability in a soft-synth with "reality"
- netneutrality, on 01/08/2009, -0/+1I copied the source into Notepad++, find+replaced HTML breaks and entities with proper characters and put it in a fixed-width font and it turns out to be a picture of a curvy naked blonde lady pushing another lady's head between her legs.
- Ratteler, on 01/08/2009, -1/+2There should be only one criteria for determining weather or not an Intellectual Property of any kind should be allowed. Does withholding public use of that property benefit all society, or not.
If it only benefits a Intellectual squatter's ability to profit monger while stifling creativity, it should be revoked. - HellifIno, on 01/09/2009, -0/+1Strangely enough, that's kinda what it looked like to me in the first place.
Yes, I'm odd. - inactive, on 02/04/2009, -0/+0The long patent life creases inefficiencies in the market because people are unable to innovate. My econ class was saying that patent lengths should be reduced so other inventors can improve products.
- theonlywizdum, on 01/08/2009, -2/+2What ain't no country I ever heard of, they speak English in What?
- phxdigg, on 01/10/2009, -0/+0Patents only last 20 years. They're not infinite. But great ideas kept inside the inventors brain may not be invented in someone else's brain for decades later. If Erno Rubik did not invent his cube, would someone else have shortly there after? NO! There's nothing complicated about that cube that the Ancient Greeks couldn't have invented in wood. But it took till 1970 for it to become available.
- Tenareth, on 01/09/2009, -0/+0Who cares? It's about bogus patents, not attacking specific companies. Just because someone made money doesn't instantly make them the enemy. Jealousy is unbecoming.
- phxdigg, on 01/10/2009, -0/+0Barf. I'm sure 51 percent of the population (the greater good) would just love to steal from their 49-percent neighbors. But we have laws to prevent them. Now if they can get rid of the laws, then everyone can steal from everyone else. Does that mean we're all going to be rich? No. It means we're all going to be poor. Only the very naive fail to understand this. Hosts without parasites live. Parasites without hosts die. Everyone, including you, will have less if property rights are abolished --especially patent rights.
- phxdigg, on 01/10/2009, -0/+0Kill the anti-capitalist thieves!
- phxdigg, on 01/10/2009, -0/+0The purpose of patents are to get ideas out of individual brains and to consumers. They are not to prevent people from innovating. This is why patent laws will NEVER hurt innovation. I see wealth envy in lots of posters here. Someone brilliant comes up with a great idea, gets a patent, shows it to the world, and makes money. Someone mediocre sees the idea and says, "why of course". I think I'll get in on the game too, and they whines when the patent presents itself. The mediocre would never see the great idea without law in place to protect it for 20 years.
All patents do is deny the mundane the right to copy another person's idea for 20 years. It does not deny them the right to pay for the use of the idea, which we all do daily. It does not deny them the right to invent their own ideas. Nature seemed to have done that from birth.
People without ideas never value those with ideas. They mock them. They discount them. Ask a person without ideas, "how many ideas do you think are possible next year?" and they will say oh, 10 or 20. Now ask anyone with ideas, and you get answers like trillions or infinite. - phxdigg, on 01/10/2009, -1/+0>>> So why are we allowing companies to come up with ideas of what will happen naturally in a few months - few years at most, and then put decade long patents on them? <<<
Companies do not come up with ideas -- people do. You will never see a patent issued to a company. They are all issued to people, who can then sell them to companies for money or for employment contracts; i.e. I promise to assign all my ideas to you if you promise to pay me X dollars per year.
>>> Sure, a person can "sit at home" and come up with ideas, but that person also has to spend a lot of time and money if she wants to protect that idea with a patent <<<
Don't forget that ideas are not free either. They take lots of time to develop; experiments, mental logic, debugging, prototyping, materials, etc. If any of you ever wrote a patent, you'd know. - acmaurer, on 01/08/2009, -4/+2It obviously matters to these guys :-/
- serif69, on 01/08/2009, -9/+7Obvious patent is obvious.
- StuWendall, on 01/07/2009, -11/+7This sounds like a sticky scenario where it's hard to know who's right. This guy isn't exactly Apple.
- azhura, on 01/08/2009, -9/+2I can do neither since I can see both the pros and cons of patents.
- Roonast, on 01/08/2009, -17/+1 . ...
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