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Lawmakers Move to Grant Banks Immunity Against Patent Lawsuit (Sessions R AL)
Washington Post ^ | Thursday, February 14, 2008 | Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Posted on 02/18/2008 8:35:44 PM PST by dickmc

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has sponsored an unusual provision at the urging of the nation's banks granting them immunity against an active patent lawsuit, potentially saving them billions of dollars. The federal government would have to pay $1 billion to the owner, DataTreasury, over 10 years as compensation
.......
The provision, passed without dissent by the Senate Judiciary Committee in July and inserted into legislation scheduled for a vote by the full Senate this month
.......
Political action committees of financial institutions were the largest single category of industry donors to Sessions, with $52,300 in the current election cycle, the center said. That represented nearly a quarter of PAC contributions he received as of midyear 2007.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Technical
KEYWORDS: banks; buyout; patent; sessions
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Read the whole disgusting story at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR2008021303731.html

I guess the bridge to nowhere wasn't good enough.

Also, another story of the Patent Office gone mad. An obvious idea with prior art.

1 posted on 02/18/2008 8:35:47 PM PST by dickmc
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To: dickmc
Hm.....wow.

What a crock.

2 posted on 02/18/2008 8:39:58 PM PST by Psycho_Bunny (It's Plain He's A Pain....I Won't Vote For McCain.)
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To: dickmc

I want a little more information. Sessions been quite a conservative Senator, considered by many “one of the good guys.” I have been very proud of him and I think he would make a good President if we can get him to run.

Therefore, considering the source of this piece is the Washington Post, “one of the BAD guys”, I think they may be trying to take down a very promising conservative President before he starts building momentum (for 2012 or 2016).

I do NOT TRUST anyone in the lamestream media.


3 posted on 02/18/2008 8:44:11 PM PST by Jemian (Remember, you are unique. Just like everyone else.)
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To: Jemian

>>
“... “Limiting patent holders’ rights and remedies in this instance could reduce innovation in this technology area,” wrote Assistant Secretary Nathaniel F. Wienecke. “The Administration does not support exceptions to patent protection based on a particular technology.”...”
>>

Sure wish the Bush Administration had the same protectionist attitude towards emigration laws.


4 posted on 02/18/2008 8:50:10 PM PST by SatinDoll (Desperately seeking a conservative candidate.)
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To: SatinDoll

Again, I’m highly suspicious of this hit piece. Sessions is gaining in popularity and power. Who is setting him up? RNC because they do not support the conservative agenda, the RATS because they know Sessions will be supported by conservatives and the establishment if he does ever get the nomination, or has there indeed been shady dealing? I don’t trust anybody, but I’m especially tired of the good guys getting slammed by what are relatively minor (compared to the RATS) problems.

It is sort of like comparing panties on the head and waterboarding as torture when the enemy disembowels people and sets them on fire (while alive). The seriousness just isn’t there.


5 posted on 02/18/2008 8:56:25 PM PST by Jemian (Remember, you are unique. Just like everyone else.)
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To: Jemian

Banks are getting squeezed right now, and this may have more to do with a Senator trying to help out the banking system and prevent a serious recession/depression. Bank failures was a major component of the Great Depression. Small investors and holders of savings accounts lost all their money - complete and total losses. Many communities no longer had banks by 1935 and for a long time many people refused to keep their money in banks.

Does Sessions accept large donation from banking concerns? There seems to be so much quid-pro-quo nowadays, but I guess that has always been the case in politics.


6 posted on 02/18/2008 9:08:34 PM PST by SatinDoll (Desperately seeking a conservative candidate.)
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To: dickmc
DataTreasury asserts that Ballard is the inventor of the system and built a company to sell it before being squashed by banks that stole his idea.

BS! They took technology and processes that have been in industry-wide (public) use for over twenty years, with continuous improvements, wrapped the technology and processes in a different package, then tried to extort money from the companies that were already using and improving the processes.

Just a wild guess, but I'd bet his little gizmo scans a check image into an encapsulated TIFF image, captures the transaction data, and merges the data and image into an x937i format, then transmits it to some server.

That's like patenting a particular method of breathing currently in universal use, and then suing the pants off every person caught sucking oxygen.

Copyrights and patents have outlived their usefulness. With wide-open borders and practically unlimited work-visas being used to wage war on productive Americans, we surely don't need to provide protectionist cover for obvious scam artists.

7 posted on 02/18/2008 9:12:03 PM PST by meadsjn
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To: All
The protection of intellectual property and of private capital are crucial to the preservation of the USA. Hold your fire on Senator Sessions until you really know what you're talking about.
8 posted on 02/18/2008 9:17:10 PM PST by The Spirit Of Allegiance (Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
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To: dickmc
Sounds like a complicated issue, for sure. But judging by the picture of Sessions that WaPo chose to include with the story...

...he's obviously guilty of something terrible and should be burned at the stake! Imagine them using a photo of Ted Kennedy or any Democrat with their hands in a defensive posture as if to fend off blows. You'll never see that.

9 posted on 02/18/2008 9:28:43 PM PST by Perchant
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To: dickmc
The article, nor any of the posts to date, mention particular patent numbers.

The prior court case seemed to only address whether the technology had been previously patented, and not whether it was worthy of a patent on its own merit.

Can anyone provide any more info?

I tried searching but either got no hits or too many hits.

10 posted on 02/18/2008 9:30:30 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance
The protection of intellectual property and of private capital are crucial to the preservation of the USA.

Not so. It this were true, we would still have tight restrictions on the transfer of technology abroad, and we wouldn't have 10+ million foreigners working in high-tech jobs in the U.S. while 10+ million American tech workers are either unemployed or working outside their field.

11 posted on 02/18/2008 9:33:03 PM PST by meadsjn
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To: dickmc; Abathar; Abcdefg; Abram; Abundy; akatel; albertp; AlexandriaDuke; Alexander Rubin; ...
Plus this story.



Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
12 posted on 02/18/2008 9:33:37 PM PST by traviskicks (http://www.neoperspectives.com/Ron_Paul_2008.htm)
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

That’s my point exactly. Plus, CONSIDER THE SOURCE. IT’S FROM WAPO AND CANNOT BE TRUSTED.


13 posted on 02/18/2008 9:37:17 PM PST by Jemian ("I hate the media." ~~ Kayak)
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To: meadsjn

the patent:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=BZsDAAAAEBAJ&dq=6032137


14 posted on 02/18/2008 9:51:22 PM PST by Old Dirty Bastiat
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To: meadsjn

Not all patents and certainly not trademarks! But I agree a lot of patents should be invalidated. There are a lot of patents whereby someone took a well known and widely employed manual process and made it an electronic process, and then claimed patent protection over the process itself. That’s bogus. He may have added value, but to try to shake down industries by preventing them from automating long held practices is lame. But the patent office let a lot of them slide, either because they didn’t understand what was happening or because they were under a misguided mandate to “protect” a burgeoning computer software industry.


15 posted on 02/18/2008 10:01:59 PM PST by monkeyshine
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To: dickmc

All those Folks that we’ve elected to send to Washington love EITHER Banks or Trial Lawyers.

‘nuff said


16 posted on 02/18/2008 10:29:26 PM PST by PizzaDriver (an heinleinian/libertarian)
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To: meadsjn

In a very early ‘Batman’ comic book (maybe even issue #1) arch-villain “Toyman” copyrighted the alphabet so nobody could use it without his permission.


17 posted on 02/18/2008 10:36:00 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: meadsjn; All
Just a wild guess, but I'd bet his little gizmo [...]

I believe this is it (US Patent #6,032,137--"Remote image capture with centralized processing and storage").

Enjoy!

18 posted on 02/18/2008 10:56:44 PM PST by Gondring (I'll give up my right to die when hell freezes over my dead body!)
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To: Old Dirty Bastiat; monkeyshine
I just zipped through the patent and my suspicions were correct, but this guy's claims are even more outrageous than I imagined. He should be laughed out of the country.

In addition to the check imaging concept, which has existed in various forms for thirty years, he wants to claim ownership of point-of-sale credit card collection processing, which has been around for even longer.

It is arrogant jackasses like this that make banking fees higher for merchants and customers. He hasn't invented anything. He is claiming rights to fees on processes that existed before he was even born. Even more outrageous is that the patent office is abetting this fraud.

Maybe I could patent the letter 'e'.

19 posted on 02/18/2008 11:05:19 PM PST by meadsjn
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To: Lancey Howard
In a very early ‘Batman’ comic book (maybe even issue #1) arch-villain “Toyman” copyrighted the alphabet so nobody could use it without his permission.

I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut that this guy is a gamer and comic book freak.

20 posted on 02/18/2008 11:16:07 PM PST by meadsjn
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