News picks
Articles from other sources; copy title, first paragraph, and put URL in body of post.
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I ask that the government put stipulations on software research financed by public funds (or even largely financed by government funds) that the results be patent free, published, and Free Software. The public has paid for the research once with their tax dollars. Why should they have to pay for it again?
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by: 10 Dec 2008 12:47 |
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The Defensive Publications program, a component of Linux Defenders, enables non-attorneys to use a set of Web-based forms to generate defensive publications. It relies on substantial participation from the open source community as it relates to disclosures. Defensive publication drafts will be reviewed and edited as needed and at no charge by OIN’s attorneys. The completed defensive publication will be added by OIN to the IP.com database, which is in turn used by IP attorneys and the patent and trademark office to search for prior art when examining patent applications.
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by: 10 Dec 2008 11:51 |
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Standards for software patentability between EU, APAC and US lacking harmonization in key areas; In re Bilski preserves legitimate role for software and business method patents, but uncertainties remain; We need "Safe Harbor" claiming for software and business method patents in U.S. that would meet subject matter requirements of EPC and APAC nations; "Inventive Step" harmonization with "Non-Obviousness Standards"
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by: 10 Dec 2008 11:18 |
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"[B]oth researchers and companies in component industries simply ignore patents. Virtually everyone does it. They do it at all stages of endeavor. From the perspective of an outsider to the patent system, this is a remarkable fact. And yet it may be what prevents the patent system from crushing innovation in component industries like IT." -- Mark Lemley, Ignoring Patents (2008)
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by: 10 Dec 2008 11:07 |
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The new programme, called Linux Defenders (site not live as of writing), will include a call to open source developers all over the world all over the world to submit their software inventions to Linux Defenders so that the group’s attorneys and engineers can help shape, structure, and document the invention in the form of a “defensive publication”.
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by: 10 Dec 2008 11:00 |
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One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates using a web-based client-server application offline. During operation, the system receives a function call at an object within a browser that is executing on a client, wherein the function call is generated by the web-based client-server application and is directed to a communication layer on the client.
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by: 10 Dec 2008 10:40 |
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Friendster has been granted its fourth patent regarding social networking, and still has more than a dozen patent applications under consideration. The current patent is for “compatibility scoring of users in a social network”, or in simpler terms how compatible are users of a social network to each other. The patent outlines a technology that is being used by almost all social networks, this begs the question that if and when Friendster could actually demand payments from the likes of MySpace and Facebook.
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by: 10 Dec 2008 10:38 |
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Even the modern controversy over the current effort of the Free Software Foundation to limit software patents through the General Public License Version 3 finds reflection in the earlier Cornwall experience. Familiar with the negative impact of the Watt patents on innovation, Cornwall mine engineers were reluctant to patent their inventions. From 1781 to 1852 Cornish residents took out a grand total of 15 patents on steam technology—against 994 patents on steam technology in all of England during that period. Will it surprise you to learn that the area with the fewest patents also was the area that contributed the most to the innovation and development of steam technology?
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by: 10 Dec 2008 10:37 |
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CNNMoney.com reports that a consortium of companies called the Open Invention Network has launched a Web site that publicities software developments so that patent trolls will have a harder time launching frivolous lawsuits. [...] Among the usual suspects (IBM, Red Hat, etc.), OIM also includes Phillips and Sony. I guess the concern of patent trolling gives these companies a common enemy. The Linux Foundation and the Software Freedom Law Center are co-sponsoring this as well.
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by: 10 Dec 2008 10:33 |
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The Durham, N.C., intellectual property company said the new Linux Defenders Program (registration required) will provide funds to help developers pay to upload documentation about their code to sites like IP.com, a patent database. Keith Bergelt, CEO of OIN, called IP.com the main source of information for patent officials and others researching the viability of a proposed patent.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 23:28 |
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The Linux Defenders program, sponsored by the Software Freedom Law Center and the Linux Foundation, is designed to address intellectual property concerns about meritless patents for the Linux and open source community. The program solicits prior art to help invalidate and reject poor quality patent applications and patents, while encouraging high quality inventions and defensive applications.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 23:25 |
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OIN is actively seeking to address problems that arise from patent trolls and industrial companies whose business models and behaviors are antagonistic to Linux and true innovation. If your company is being victimized by any entity seeking to assert its patent portfolio against Linux, please contact us so that we can aid you in your battle with these dark forces.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 23:20 |
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The book talks about why Microsoft is toast, implications for Google, why software is unreliable today, the Java mess, patents and copyright, Ubuntu, remaining challenges for free software, and many other things. I'm a former Microsoft programmer of 11 years, and I'm one of a few people who've studied the MS and non-MS worlds.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 11:27 |
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As many as 500 delegates working in the free software arena, including Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, and Alan Story, head of Copy South Research Group, will take part in the conference, jointly being organised by the State IT Mission and SPACE (Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment). The conference will begin with the keynote address on ‘Software patent : Indian and international scenario’ by Eben Moglen, professor of law and legal history at Columbia University and founder, Director-Counsel and chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, at Mascot Hotel at 10 a.m. This will be followed by a lecture by Michel Bauwens, Belgian integral philosopher and peer-to-peer theorist.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 11:24 |
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An anonymous reader lets us know about a new initiative designed to help shield the open source software community from threats posed by patent trolls. The initiative, called Linux Defenders (the website is slated to go live tomorrow, Dec. 9), is sponsored by a consortium of technology companies including IBM.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 11:19 |
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The existing intellectual protection (IP) system, under which companies have to file a patent in every EU member state, is "a telling example” of the Union's fractured regulatory framework, argues the study presented at last week's IP Summit in Brussels. The lack of a Europe-wide Community patent poses "incredible challenges" for small businesses and undermines the EU's goal of becoming the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world, according to a new study. [...] To bypass the EU regulatory framework, many innovative companies and especially SMEs end up "skipping" the European market by applying for a patent in the US, Jonathan Zuck of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) told EurActiv.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 11:07 |
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IBM also builds its Maginot Line inside OIN, which is a software patents pool. It actively participates in this patents vs. patents cold war instead of just eliminating the weapon called software patents for the sake of everyone else (not just the large companies in possession of extensive portfolios). As we showed recently, even the man who drove IBM into Linux is still defending software patents.
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by: 09 Dec 2008 10:58 |
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Cisco Vice President Mallun Yen said that the number of patent lawsuits against the company has quadrupled over the past five years. “The patent system overvalues patents, particularly weak ones, and thereby suppresses innovation,” she said. Yen disagreed with Peter N Detkin, founder and vice chairman of Intellectual Ventures, who attempted to recast the patent debate as one between big players, like Cisco and IBM, against individual inventors. Detkin said these small inventors do not want to commercial their inventions. Instead, they want to reap the appropriate reward and go back to inventing. As an example, Detkin cited an inventor who figured out a way to accelerate router speeds by 10 percent. That inventor didn’t want to compete against Cisco in the marketplace, but wanted to licence its technology to Cisco, he said.
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by: 08 Dec 2008 17:42 |
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Although some factions of the free- and open-source community are ideologically opposed to the whole notion of software patents — most notably and passionately Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation (which is a client of Linux-Defenders co-sponsor Software Freedom Law Center, which, in turn, supports the End Software Patents organization) — neither Bergelt nor OIN fall into that camp. “We’re not anti-patent by any stretch of the imagination,” says Bergelt. “More patents is fine with me, as long as they’re high quality. Quality is the drum we beat.”
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by: 08 Dec 2008 15:43 |
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Hopes that agreement might be reached on the proposed Community patent system this year have been dashed after EU ministers indicated the discussions would have to continue well into next year. Meeting as the Competitiveness Council on December 1st-2nd, ministers said some progress had been made on both the Community patent and the unified patent litigation system, but that a number of issues were still outstanding and would need to be examined in more depth, particularly the financial aspects and language arrangements.
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by: 08 Dec 2008 15:38 |
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