The line forms here. When your number is called please have your Statement of Claim ready, including amount of damages you are seeking. If you do not have a Statement of Claim please form a line over there and one will be provided.
Yes have you ever heard of a company called Apple?
Oh the irony of irony. If this was the other way around the fanboys would be screaming bloody murder, now the same koolaid drinkers will be screaming its soooooooo unfair.
Turd... Every company plays the patent game these days. Apple fan boys are no more koolaid drinkers that your dumb ass.
(edit: You didn't read the notice to not feed the troll?)
I seem to recall in the early nineties images from the CCDs in a telescope being veiwed on Macintosh computers when I was doing an astronomy course, astronomy is the field of physics where the whole idea of using sensors for cameras instead of film and interpreting the results using computers came from.
I also recall viewing Landsat satellite images as well via the Internet on Macintosh computers as well.
There are both advantages and disadvantages of patents.
The main advantage of a patent, is to protect investment in R&D that a company engages in. If you are a large company spending millions per year on R&D, the last thing you want is for you to develop something that another company rips off and makes massive profit from whilst you struggle to get income to cover your costs of R&D. By protecting R&D investment, it encourages development on new ideas and products.
The main disadvantage is that they can be so vague that you could potentially patent every conceivable product solution and run a business, like these guys, that purely has an income from licensing and winning patent infringement cases. This discourages product development as a company can spend a lot of time just investigating whether an idea has been patented.
I believe that the number of patents now being filed has rocketed up in recent years http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._1790-2008.png to a point where I do not believe they are thoroughly investigated for merit before being granted. If this is true, it really is harm businesses in the long run.
When a patent is granted, I would like to see filed alongside it all of the criteria and judgements that the patent office applied to each area. This would help any legal issues.
I also think the time limits of patents need to be reduced. They should be set an a level that would allow a company to make reasonable return on R&D investment yet not too long as to make filing infringements against what are now common products (e.g. digital camera's) being used to make massive profits. I am sure St Clair did not invest multi-millions on R&D to these patents!!
Surely the principle is award damages to those who show they are using their patents and therefore are truly being hurt its like me patenting the use of photo sensitive cells but not actually manufacturing them.
too many people are becoming rich on concept patents without any effort into design manufacture or enhancement.
The main disadvantage is that they can be so vague that you could potentially patent every conceivable product solution and run a business, like these guys, that purely has an income from licensing and winning patent infringement cases. This discourages product development as a company can spend a lot of time just investigating whether an idea has been patented.
The process of registering a patent is supposed to balance between too narrow (ineffective) and too broad (covering innovations that aren't yours), but it doesn't seem to work out that way enough.
Patents are more likely to be invalidated if it's too broad or too vague. But invalidating a patent is a long process, and patent lawsuits cost a lot of money.
It's hard to say how big of a problem it is, lots of patents get issued, I think we only hear about the gray areas and the travesties, not the slam-dunk valid ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aga
I laugh, because Apple has played this game from every angle. The mouse, the GUI... one Click checkout...
There is probably a lot of depth to the examples you give, I don't recall reading about patent lawsuits here. What did Apple do about the mouse and GUI? I don't remember their involvement in the One Click checkout kerfluffle.
Comments
The line forms here. When your number is called please have your Statement of Claim ready, including amount of damages you are seeking. If you do not have a Statement of Claim please form a line over there and one will be provided.
Why is it possible for someone who has never made anything to have a claim and where exactly is the damage?
Patent practices in the US are ridiculous
(edit: Please don't feed the troll)
Yes have you ever heard of a company called Apple?
Oh the irony of irony. If this was the other way around the fanboys would be screaming bloody murder, now the same koolaid drinkers will be screaming its soooooooo unfair.
Turd... Every company plays the patent game these days. Apple fan boys are no more koolaid drinkers that your dumb ass.
(edit: You didn't read the notice to not feed the troll?)
I also recall viewing Landsat satellite images as well via the Internet on Macintosh computers as well.
I guess there's no such thing as "prior art".
The main advantage of a patent, is to protect investment in R&D that a company engages in. If you are a large company spending millions per year on R&D, the last thing you want is for you to develop something that another company rips off and makes massive profit from whilst you struggle to get income to cover your costs of R&D. By protecting R&D investment, it encourages development on new ideas and products.
The main disadvantage is that they can be so vague that you could potentially patent every conceivable product solution and run a business, like these guys, that purely has an income from licensing and winning patent infringement cases. This discourages product development as a company can spend a lot of time just investigating whether an idea has been patented.
I believe that the number of patents now being filed has rocketed up in recent years http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._1790-2008.png to a point where I do not believe they are thoroughly investigated for merit before being granted. If this is true, it really is harm businesses in the long run.
When a patent is granted, I would like to see filed alongside it all of the criteria and judgements that the patent office applied to each area. This would help any legal issues.
I also think the time limits of patents need to be reduced. They should be set an a level that would allow a company to make reasonable return on R&D investment yet not too long as to make filing infringements against what are now common products (e.g. digital camera's) being used to make massive profits. I am sure St Clair did not invest multi-millions on R&D to these patents!!
Phil
too many people are becoming rich on concept patents without any effort into design manufacture or enhancement.
It should stop
The main disadvantage is that they can be so vague that you could potentially patent every conceivable product solution and run a business, like these guys, that purely has an income from licensing and winning patent infringement cases. This discourages product development as a company can spend a lot of time just investigating whether an idea has been patented.
The process of registering a patent is supposed to balance between too narrow (ineffective) and too broad (covering innovations that aren't yours), but it doesn't seem to work out that way enough.
Patents are more likely to be invalidated if it's too broad or too vague. But invalidating a patent is a long process, and patent lawsuits cost a lot of money.
It's hard to say how big of a problem it is, lots of patents get issued, I think we only hear about the gray areas and the travesties, not the slam-dunk valid ones.
I laugh, because Apple has played this game from every angle. The mouse, the GUI... one Click checkout...
There is probably a lot of depth to the examples you give, I don't recall reading about patent lawsuits here. What did Apple do about the mouse and GUI? I don't remember their involvement in the One Click checkout kerfluffle.
* A Michigan company
An precedes a word starting with a vowel