News picks
Articles from other sources; copy title, first paragraph, and put URL in body of post.
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Apple has agreed to pay Burst.com $10m to settle the patent infringement challenge the smaller US company launched against it in April 2006. Back then, Burst.com claimed Apple's iTunes Music Store, QuickTime streaming software and the iPod all incorporate without permission technology detailed in four patents held by Burst.com: 4,963,995; 5,995,705; 5,057,932 and 5,164,839. The IP covers the transmission of compressed audio and video files over the net.
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by:  zoobab 1195740174|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Just in time for holiday shopping, the USPTO has awarded Amazon a patent for Generating Current Order Fulfillment Plans Based on Expected Future Orders, which explains how to use modeled net present value to adjust an order's delivery date favorably or unfavorably based upon expectations that the customer will have high-profit orders in the future. So don't blame Santa if that special gift isn't under the tree on Christmas morning, kids - it could just be dear-old-Dad's low NPV score!
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by: zoobab 1195740027|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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The European Commission has set out its vision, in the form of a Communication, for improving the patent system in Europe and for revitalising the debate on this issue. (IP/07/463). Making the Community patent a reality and improving the existing patent litigation system should, together with supporting measures, make the patent system more accessible and bring cost savings for all. The paper highlights that Europe's current patent system is considerably more expensive than the US and Japanese systems. A Community patent would be far more attractive than models under the present system which is a bundle of national patents.
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by: zoobab 1195739858|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Mandriva has become the third major Linux distributor to publicly announce it has no intention to join Microsoft in licensing and non-litigation pacts. Red Hat and Ubuntu have made similar statements, while Novell, Xandros and Linspire have partnered with Microsoft in sharing licensed technology and agreeing not to sue each other over possible patent infringements.
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by: zoobab 1195739794|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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The hearing officer then followed the established Aerotel/Macrossan four-step approach to determine whether the invention was excluded from patentability under section 1(2). The contribution, determined to be that of allowing existing online authorisation and uploading requests to contain a gratuity in their amount, was considered to be a method for doing business as such, and also a computer program since its implementation would be in software running on otherwise conventional hardware. Any “technical features”, while possibly advantages of the invention, would not be achieved by technical means, but by changing the business uses of a known system. Any reference to whether the contribution was technical in nature would make no difference to the outcome, once the contribution was determined to fall solely within excluded subject matter. The hearing officer consequently ordered the patent to be revoked.
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by: zoobab 1195728142|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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The difficulties in making progress on patents and especially on the creation of a Community patent led the Commission to launch, in 2006, a broad consultation of all interested parties on the future patent system. The results leave no doubt on the urgent need for action to provide a simple, cost-effective and high-quality patent system in Europe.
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by: zoobab 1195683912|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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One needs to understand that there is fundamentally no difference between software and hardware; each is frequently expressed in terms of the other, interchangeably describing the same thing. For example, many microprocessors are conceptualized as software through the use of hardware description languages (HDL) such as Bluespec System Verilog and VHDL. The resulting HDL software code is downloaded to special microprocessors known as FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays), which can mimic a prospective chip's design and functions for testing. Eventually, the HDL code may be physically etched into silicon. Voilà! The software becomes hardware.
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by: zoobab 1195683785|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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It's not surprising, of course, to find out that the piece was penned by a patent attorney -- hardly an unbiased source in the matter. He also makes other mistakes and incorrect assumptions about why people dislike software patents. It's not just because most people find the patents obvious in hindsight (as he suggests), but because people understand that innovation is an ongoing process of building on the ideas of others -- and blocking off simple ideas with patents makes it nearly impossible to continue that process.
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by: zoobab 1195644242|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Here is a group of recently-submitted videos that demonstate Europe’s resistance to software patents.
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Once further consensus has been reached on the jurisdictional system, solutions for the Community patent will be explored since a number of Member States consider that the jurisdictional system and the Community patent should form a package.
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by: zoobab 1195571352|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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The jury invalidated the patent on the grounds that it was obvious and did not describe a new technology. Patent 5,933,630 was filed in June 1997, and describes a method of recording the files accessed while a program starts up, optimising the sequence and on subsequent launches moving all the required data into a RAM cache. Computer Acceleration Corporation was seeking $US2.50 for every copy of XP sold in the US, which could have totalled as much as $US900 million.
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by: zoobab 1195490361|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Second, and maybe more important, is the fact that the U.S. patent situation is a mess because of software patents. It’s a minefield that is so difficult to navigate that even big companies that can afford to hire a battery of lawyers can still step on a nasty and get its feet blown off. Smaller software development companies probably aren’t going to be better off. It’s like playing hopscotch on a minefield; and minefields don’t discriminate. They blow up everyone. How can developers innovate with this insane setup? With great difficulty and at great risk. It’s just better to abolish all software patents entitrely. After all, if you want people to really be safe on a minefield, you don’t start handing out metal detectors. You clear the minefield. That’s the only real solution.
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by: zoobab 1195488668|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Tax patents undermine the integrity and fairness of the federal tax system. They put taxpayers in the undesirable position of having to choose between paying more than legally required in taxes or paying a royalty to a third-party for use of a tax planning invention that reduces those taxes. Congress needs to level the playing field and improve options for taxpayers.
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by: zoobab 1195488090|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Yesterday, I posted a big list of VoIP Patent questions that friends have been asking me ever since I started blogging. Since I've got clients who retain me as an expert witness in patent lawsuits, and since I'm an inventor on 18 patents, they figure I might know the answers to questions like "Don't other companies have VoIP patents, too, not just Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint?"
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by: zoobab 1195487642|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Microsoft this week won a years-old patent infringement case involving technology it used to speed the boot time of Windows XP. Acceleration Software International Corp sued Microsoft for infringing on its 1999 patent in XP, and a loss could have cost the software giant up to $900 million. However, an east Texas jury found that Microsoft did not infringe on the patent. In fact, it also found that the patent was invalid because "it was obvious" (yes, seriously) and was pre-existing technology at the time of the patent grant in 1999.
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by: zoobab 1195487456|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Page 3 is the best part of the interview. Mr. Hilf talks about having a "map" (which wasn’t correct, as Information Week pointed out); he then adds: "Classically, our preferred plan is to license our technology in a very proactive and productive way versus litigate." Which doesn’t answer the questions: what, are, these, patents? Mr. Hilf, please tell us. We all want to know. Please.
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by: zoobab 1195487342|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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These are almost old news, but it seems that since we’re based in Europe it took some time and went through different channels. Ars Aperta has joined the OpenInvention Network. The question that would immediately pop to some of my readers’ mind would be: what the heck is OpenInvention Network? And then I assume there would be questions about the official position of Ars Aperta in regard of software patents. Let me seize this opportunity to address this quite interesting question. First, the OIN is in the business of acquiring software patents and granting rights on them for free to anyone. Its founders are IBM, Red Hat, Philips, NEC, Sony and Novell.
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by: zoobab 1195432636|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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The key to that is to separate, people's, individuals' and groups' belief about software patents as an issue and then what is the current way that we do patent law in at least the United States. You may disagree with it, but there's a law for how we deal with patents. They often get wrapped up together as the same issue, but they're not the same. As a company, we're hyperactively involved with patent reform and trying to find models that work best for the industry. But it is key, as you have these conversations, particularly with the open source community, keep in the back of your mind, what is the current model for doing business, right, wrong or indifferent, and then what is the opinion about software patents as an issue.
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Finally, IP Innovation and Technology Licensing Corp. -- in other words, ACACIA -- filed a lawsuit in Marshall against Google, accusing Google's search engine and Google Earth of infringing two patents. This is the same Acacia sub that sued Red Hat and Novell over Linux, with the same lawyers - Johnny Ward and Eric Albritton. But these are different patents. The patents asserted against Google are 5,276,785 and 5,675,819, which Acacia got from Xerox.
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by: zoobab 1195398664|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover |
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Watch the following 3-minute video. All in all, Yahoo’s talk about patent trolls was interesting. By no means, however, think of Yahoo as a pleasant company.
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