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This whole "intellectual property" mania is a mental illness that deserves its own entry into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It's like that great movie, "Aguirre: The Wrath of God." Give yourself a treat and watch it; it's a wonderful film that takes place after the fall of the Incan empire. Lope de Aguirre, played by the perfectly mad Klaus Kinski, leads a band of Spanish conquistadors on a quest for El Dorado, the legendary City of Gold. The quest is doomed, of course, as they struggle through hostile terrain and hostile locals, pushed onward by their own greed and ruthlessness.
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by: 19 Jan 2009 23:43 |
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Acacia Research Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTG) announced today that its subsidiary, International Printer Corporation, has entered into a settlement and license agreement with Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) covering a patent portfolio that relates to networkable multifunction printer technology. This agreement resolves patent litigation that was pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas against Dell. International Printer Corporation has also entered into a license agreement with Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) covering the same technology portfolio.
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by: 19 Jan 2009 23:40 |
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On Wednesday I attended the Brookings Institution's conference on "The Limits of Abstract Patents in an Intangible Economy." The conference was organized by software patent skeptics, so that perspective has been well represented. But I was struck by the dramatic differences between the views of lawyers on the one hand (who made up the majority of the panelists and audience members) and the handful of technologists on the other. The first panel focused on the economics of abstract patents, and included a mix of technologists, economist, and lawyers. All of the panelists spoke about the serious problems being caused by patents in the software industry and argued for dramatic restrictions on software and business method patents. The tone of the second panel, which focused on legal issues, was rather different. All of the panelists were lawyers, and although they acknowledged that the patent system had problems, and that these problems are especially serious in the software industry, their
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by: 19 Jan 2009 23:38 |
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It’s problematic in the Free software world, especially since Novell uses these patents to create fear of non-SLE* GNU/Linux distributions. TechDirt has this good post about the desire of lawyers to have excessive patentability, whereas engineers don’t need or want this (a point that was stressed before, using evidence).
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by: 19 Jan 2009 23:37 |
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If our current patent system isn't living up to that standard, the solution isn't to come up with ever-more-complex legal doctrines trying to separate the "good" vague patents from the bad ones. Rather, the solution is to restrict patenting to those fields where it's possible to make things clear and predictable. If that's not possible in some industry (and I suspect it's not in software), then that's a sign that patents aren't an effective way to promote innovation in that industry.
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by: 18 Jan 2009 10:51 |
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We were particularly pleased to see the issue of software patents addressed in a manner that prevents them being used to hinder competition rather than the original purpose of patent law, to promote innovation. We are concerned about the current state of the standards process, as evidenced by the recent ISO process relating to a standard that no-one implements "Open XML" which appears to be achieving full recognition in spite of safeguards in the standards process rather than because of them.
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by: 16 Jan 2009 14:57 |
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The Federal Circuit recently ruled [patentlyo.com] en banc that if your patent doesn't involve specific physical things, it's not actually patentable. So at the moment any software not tied to a specific hardware device is invalid again. What Congress does with this will be interesting to see. They were taking up patent reform several times in the last session. Probably half or more of IBM's patents are on software methods.
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by: 16 Jan 2009 13:09 |
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But if some companies think there's free money in suing others for infringement, there are other companies who think there's money in trying to stop them. Enter self-described "patent research company" Article One Partners, which is offering a cool $50,000 to anyone who can offer proof in the way of "prior art" substantiating the virtual worlds idea existed prior to 1995. AOP's Cheryl Milone, a patent lawyer, explained to SAI how her two month-old company works: Article One crowdsources the research behind patent investigations to the entire Internet, and makes the reward big enough to motivate people. The company then turns around and sells the research to interested parties, like NCSoft.
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by: 16 Jan 2009 12:43 |
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Global IP network operator Global Crossing has settled a patent suit relating to interactive voice applications with Ronald A Katz Technology Licensing. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but as part of the agreement the company will purchase a non-exclusive license under a comprehensive portfolio of patents that Katz owns. The patents cover services offered by the company including collaborative and conferencing services.
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by: 16 Jan 2009 12:24 |
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(4) Bilski v. Doll: A decision that revisits earlier decisions on patent standards in which the Federal Circuit limited patentability to inventions (1) tied to a particular machine or (2) that transform an “article” into a different state or thing. The court also confirmed previous cases holding that fundamental principles of mathematics or science are not patentable. But, since the claims in Bilski were not tied to particular hardware, the court did not consider the viability of patenting specific functions carried out by a computer. Now, how the phrase “tied to a particular machine” will be applied to software patents.
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by: 16 Jan 2009 12:20 |
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The Microsoft pressure group known as ACT [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] is meanwhile peddling a back door to software patents in Europe. The FFII’s president delivered the following public talk. [...] There was a lot more to see in this event. “The worst are the answer from the Commission and Alcatel people,” says Benjamin from FFII, who watched it quite closely.
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by: 15 Jan 2009 20:12 |
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On 26 and 27 March 2009, TILEC - Tilburg Law and Economics Center - hosts an international Conference on Patent Reforms in Hotel Krasnapolsky, Amsterdam. The conference features internationally renowned speakers and intends to foster discussion on patents, innovation and competition policy between lawyers, economists and practitioners. [...] Ms. A. Marasco, General Manager, Standards Strategy at Microsoft - The concept of FRAND [...] Mr. G.R.B. van Peursem, Vice President, District Court of The Hague - The (new) European patent litigation system [...] THE PROBLEM OF UNCERTAINTY IN PATENT LAW - Prof. W.A. Hoyng, Tilburg University and Howrey LLP and the
Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Jacob, UK Court of Appeal
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by: 15 Jan 2009 12:22 |
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Since a lot of the patents that were issued in 2008 were based on applications that were made as long ago as 2005 and 2006, there has not - as yet - been an affect on patent applications and awards from the economic meltdown. And given the huge backlog of applications, even if companies do slash their research and development budgets and therefore the number of patentable technologies, the effect may take years to show up in the patent counts. Patents are one of those issues in IT that drives people nuts - rightly so considering the abuses of high tech vendors. If the New York district attorney can indict a ham sandwich, IBM can probably get a patent on the sandwich and the process that the DA uses as part of a business process re-engineering and outsourcing contract. (That hasn't happened - at least not yet).
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by: 15 Jan 2009 11:10 |
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A computer backup recovery firm claims Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer, and others have aped its patent for quickly restoring a PC after data corruption.
Xpoint Technologies is headed by David Wang, credited for the allegedly infringed upon US patents and claimed member of the original team that developed the first IBM Personal Computer.
Patents 7,024,581 and 7,430,686, called "Data Processing Recovery System and Method Spanning Multiple Operating Systems," were issued to Xpoint and Wang in April 2006 and September 2008, respectively. The first was filed October 9, 2002.
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by: 15 Jan 2009 10:58 |
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So how can we get generally understable standards of patentability? Europe: some type of entities can’t be patented / US: history of software: committee during Carter admin was divided b/w copyright and no protection for software — but case law decided that subject matter restrictions were out / simplest approach to patent reform is to codify standard that information/processing can’t be patented — goes back to Jefferson’s stand that ideas can’t be patented / plan B: new examination ritual that leads to reject all patents on software, gene sequences, algorithms, data already happening: US: Bilski; Europe: patent directive
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by: 15 Jan 2009 10:44 |
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In the first case, IBM is saying that it will significantly increase the number of technical inventions it formally publishes into the public domain. These then become unpatentable by anyone but it also means they are free for use by anyone in anything, including open source and standards. So just as IBM has frequently talked about having a balanced and dynamic intellectual property strategy, this will more explicitly push more useful ideas into the open.
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by: 15 Jan 2009 10:39 |
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The goal of this effort is to improve the patent system by establishing empirical, objective metrics directly correlated to factors such as clarity of claims and quality of prior art cited during patent examination. This will help inventors file better applications and examiners make better decisions more quickly, so that patents are more likely valid. "Improving patent quality must become an essential priority and we believe the application of advanced data analytics can help create an empirical measure for what has previously been a subjective evaluation," said Dr. Rick Lawrence, manager of Predictive Modeling for IBM Research. "By working with the academic and legal communities on this and other patent quality initiatives, we can increase the intelligence of the patent system and encourage the patenting of truly important innovations." IBM believes its commitment to researching and increasing patent quality will encourage continued investment in research and development, while disco
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by: 15 Jan 2009 10:18 |
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The company also said it is working on a joint project, the Patent Quality Index, to address those patents with uncertain scope or weak claims to innovation. Director of IBM Research, and a senior vice president, Dr. John Kelly explained in the statement: "Our goal is helping stimulate innovation as public investments in large infrastructure projects are being planned to boost global economies. We also anticipate that adding additional transparency to the patent system will help tackle the continuing patent quality crisis, which is impeding inventors, entrepreneurs, and companies of all sizes."
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by: 15 Jan 2009 10:15 |
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CIPA, the professional body for the UK's patent attorneys, has given its support to a judge who has unusually taken steps to control costs in patent actions. Mr Justice Arnold's action follows an earlier lambasting of a top law firm for putting in a bill for over £5 million in fees, in connection with a five-day patent trial involving Research In Motion, maker of the popular Blackberry device.
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by: 15 Jan 2009 10:06 |
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Yahoo Inc. is being sued for using technology in its online photo-sharing service that is allegedly protected by a patent belonging to IconFind Inc. The complaint, lodged Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, claims Flickr.com, Yahoo’s photo-managing Web site, infringes IconFind’s patent covering a method of categorizing and...
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by: 15 Jan 2009 10:05 |
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