Patent Holders Goes on Lawsuit Rampage: Film at 11!

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2004-11-23-maney_x.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.usatoday.com/money/indus...-23-maney_x.htm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Though it's not a usual part of the Thanksgiving tradition, this year you might pause to give deep and gracious thanks to lawyers. Particularly lawyers who, out of the goodness of their hearts, help downtrodden little inventors who get hoodwinked out of their patents by big, pitiless tech corporations. Who knew there were so many hoodwinkees? They've been coming out of the woodwork lately, aided by lawyers filing patent lawsuits against nearly every major tech company."</i><br /><br />This is a must-read article: I knew there were some crazy patent suits out there, but to see so many collected in one place is nauseating. Something is so incredibly wrong with the world when people are issued vague patents and are able to threaten the very infrastructure that many of us rely on to earn a living. Where did they hire the people who approve these patents from?

[dean_shan]

I hate it when people do that. What ever happened to making an honest living?

[Mike Dimmick]

The patent office is funded by the fees paid by people applying for patents. Spot the obvious problem.

[maximus]

Back in 1990, I have this idea about 'search engine', an engine that can catalog the content of internet.

Where did I put the patent approval documents ?

:p just kidding :p

[Duncan]

I have the patent on making patents - I expect to be a billionaire soon...

[JonnoB]

These kinds of suits are typically thrown out with a 'prior art' argument. Then, if the defendant is smart, challenges the legitimacy of the patent in court and then the patent gets put down. The justice system typically does a good job... the only way it could be better is if the loser paid the court/legal costs.

[bvkeen]

These kinds of suits are typically thrown out with a 'prior art' argument. Then, if the defendant is smart, challenges the legitimacy of the patent in court and then the patent gets put down. The justice system typically does a good job... the only way it could be better is if the loser paid the court/legal costs.

It would be even better if the stupid patents weren't filed in the first place, of course.

Did Amazon start this madness, or did it exist before their patent that got everyone in an uproar? (If I recall correctly, it was for one-dick ordering.)

[Jason Dunn]

(If I recall correctly, it was for one-dick ordering.)

NICE TYPO! :lol:

You know, I kind of thought Jeff Bezos was one of those for trying to enforce that patent. :lol:

[Janak Parekh]

A friend of mine was a patent examiner at the USPTO, until he quit out of frustration (among other things).

Even if they're smart (and he is), it's nearly impossible to know everything, and they have a quota they must meet, so invariably stupid things are going to get through. It's a problem of sheer volume, and the problem started when software patents were allowed. If software patents were allowed 20 years ago, I shudder to think what our technological world would be today.

--janak

[maximus]

What kind of quota ?

[Janak Parekh]

What kind of quota ?
Every examiner is given a pile of patents to examine, and they must make regular progress through them. I don't remember the precise mechanics or numbers, but suffice it to say there's always too many applications.

--janak

[Ravenswing]

Having just listened to a totally moronic report on a failed desktop update that caused problems for a civil service computer system in the UK, I think you'll find that the people who approve patent applications are hired from the general public. And that report was on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme, a very reputable source of news.

Face it, this forum hosts and is hosted by people who are generally very technically literate. We look at dumb patents and say "what the f***!" Most people (and I do mean most) are not technically literate. If the word 'computer' is mentioned, they stop trying to understand. (The same is often true of 'physics', 'chemistry', and anything else to do with science.)

This is partially our fault. We like existing in a world that isn't understood by others. It gives us job security and makes us feel superior to people who don't understand. (Actually, it's worse than that. The job market, in the UK at least, is now so specialised that you have to have exactly the right skill set to get a job. The idea that you could learn to do something you haven't yet done is anathema.)

However, what bothers me is that people that I know are intelligent don't seem to understand computers. It often feels like they don't try to understand. (I'm not the greatest teacher, but how many times do you have to keep telling people how to do the same thing.) The other alternative, and I am willing to entertain this idea, is that computers are not ready for consumption by the public, except maybe in restricted forms like GPS units, games consoles and highly restricted multi-media units.

Anyway, the patents get passed because the people passing them don't understand the implications and because some of the legal systems in place for patents in some countries allow these stupid patents to be passed.

[bvkeen]

(If I recall correctly, it was for one-dick ordering.)

NICE TYPO! :lol:

You know, I kind of thought Jeff Bezos was one of those for trying to enforce that patent. :lol:

I intended it to read that Bezos was indeed the one who applied for (and got) a patent that many of us thought was like trying to patent air.

Guess I'll have to stop posting at night when my brain has worn down (not that it's ever in the best of shape anyway).
:)

[unxmully]

that I'm reminded of a couple of SF Novels.

IIRC, in Heinlein's, otherwise very poor, Number of the Beast, the main characters pass through an alternate universe where they had a historical event called "The Day they Hanged the Lawyers". It seems RAH was no big fan of lawyers.

Frank Herbert, in the Dosadi Experiment , introduced Gowachin law where anyone in the court - plaintiff, defendant, lawyers, jury, judges and observers, could be judged and punished. Usually by death as I recall. Seems Frank wasn't much of a fan either.

It seems to me that until the issue of these "frivolous" suites is adressed by some adequate punishment for the plaintiff (read extortionist in these cases) then US law is going to be even more of an Ass than UK law.

[bjornkeizers]

(If I recall correctly, it was for one-dick ordering.)

NICE TYPO! :lol:



Wait... I can't say 'hell', but the filter will allow 'dick'? *shakes head*

[bvkeen]

(If I recall correctly, it was for one-dick ordering.)

NICE TYPO! :lol:



Wait... I can't say 'h-ll', but the filter will allow 'dick'? *shakes head*

Oops! NOW I see my typo. Calligrapher strikes again! I guess I best proof-read better before posting any more.

Duh. My apologies folks.

[dmkozak]

First, the US Patent &amp; Trademark Office is NOT funded by the fees it charges. (Nor, does the IRS subsist on fees charged for private letter rulings.)

Second, PTO officers do NOT have quotas, in any way, form, manner or shape. They are assigned applications to review. Just like any other Federal government employee, they are overworked, without adequate support, supervision or training.

[daS]

These kinds of suits are typically thrown out with a 'prior art' argument. Then, if the defendant is smart, challenges the legitimacy of the patent in court and then the patent gets put down.
Unfortunately, I don't think you are right about this. Most of these suits never make it to that stage. Usually, the holders of bogus patents (or rather - their lawyers) know that it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to win in court against them. So they offer licenses at about half the cost and companies end up paying this "protection money" rather than fight. :roll:

The justice system typically does a good job...
I used to think that, but the system has been ruined but greedy lawyers and their lap dog judges, members of Congress and state houses. :evil:

the only way it could be better is if the loser paid the court/legal costs
That would be a lot better, but the lawyers that own the system will never let that happen. :(

[daS]

Just like any other Federal government employee, they are overworked, without adequate support, supervision or training.
But the current method of issuing the patents without bothering to check them first on the basis that "the courts can fix it if we are wrong" is a huge drain on innovation and is very costly to consumers.

The only winners in the current system are the lawyers. Even the patent holders are now losers in the game: It used to be that when I heard that someone held one or more patents I was impressed that they were an innovator - Now I just yawn or perhaps even think less of them as a person because the chances are high that their patent(s) are for bogus things and the person is a leach. It's a shame that the system has been corrupted as much as it has been.