[Swordmaker]

US House of Representatives reveals patent law reform—PING!

Please, No Flame Wars, Discuss technical issues, software, and hardware.
Don't attack people!

Don't respond to the Anti-Apple Thread Trolls!
 PLEASE IGNORE THEM!!!

 

Patent Reform Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[NVDave]

“Coalition for Patent Fairness members include Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Google, Intel, Intuit, Micron, Oracle, RIM, SAP, Symantec, and Verizon Communications.”

Oh yea... I can see that these clowns want the system to be nothing but ‘fair.’

Yup. Mmm-hmmm. Riiiiiight.

[patlin]

This is a BAAAAAAD bill. The end to entrepreneurship.

[newzjunkey]

Coalition for Patent Fairness

"Fairness" is code for anything but.

[freekitty]

I see they want to continue a bad policy. This is one of the most unfair bills I have seen. Do not do it. It gives the wrong people the right to take over and benefit from someone else’s work which more than one crook has been doing for a long time.

[Diogenesis]

This bill does not support INVENTORS.

It supports:

[zeugma]

Ah yes. The best congress that money can buy. The biggest change that needs to be made to the patent system is to get rid of software and process patents.

For proof of how insane our patent system has become, I offer for your perusal, the Google Doodle patent.

See also this article.

Today's Harry Houdini logo is the first to appear after Google received a very interesting patent. The "Google doodle" – which shall forever after be known as the 'System and Method For Enticing Users To A Web Site' – has been approved by the US patent office.

I figure the prior art for this is, oh, how about the entire internet?

[Free Vulcan]

Anyone knows that the best way to keep your secret is to NOT file a patent. If you’re actually selling the gadget you’ve invented, wait till you’re ready for production and marketing before you file to get a jump on everyone.

Bottom line is the lawyers rule the game. Even if you invented it and filed the patent, most companies pockets are too deep to win a patent suit. They can always claim they invented it themselves and it only takes a few modifications to get around your patent.

There are also other sharks out there - those looking to mine the deep pockets of companies with bogus patent claims. They claim they invented it first even though they were too stupid to make a buck off it, they’ll try and make a buck off you getting the job done. Lots of times they’ll strain to prove your is a patent violation of theirs.

Either way this is set up, someone’s going to lose. Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages. I’m not sure which is the best one.

[technonerd]

The measure seeks to give the patent office more power to control its funding, with an end to Congress diverting fees for other non-patent purposes.

That part is desperately needed (see previous post), regardless of the merits of the other stuff.