Ridiculous Patents
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
Wow! As dubious as this is, you have to give the guy credits for business. Set up a patent on anything that doesn't have one, it doesn't matter whether it's your idea or not. And double-smart-points for suing small companies first, get precedence set up against cheap lawyers and then look at the bigger companies. Paul Why don't you take a good look at yourself and describe what you see - Led Zeppelin, Misty Mountain Hop
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
Many of them are small enough that their Web sites represent vital contacts with the commercial world at large, but not big enough to have the ready financial and legal resources to fight a potential patent-infringement lawsuit in court. As the article says, it sounds like they're going after small fry to build up a war chest. Only in America. The land of shackled (by lawsuits). It'll be interesting to see how this progresses. If there's any meat to this, it'll be bad for the economy and it will hurt consumers by adding a fee to Internet commerce. Have you actually read the patents? I haven't yet, but I'm curious. Marc Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.
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Many of them are small enough that their Web sites represent vital contacts with the commercial world at large, but not big enough to have the ready financial and legal resources to fight a potential patent-infringement lawsuit in court. As the article says, it sounds like they're going after small fry to build up a war chest. Only in America. The land of shackled (by lawsuits). It'll be interesting to see how this progresses. If there's any meat to this, it'll be bad for the economy and it will hurt consumers by adding a fee to Internet commerce. Have you actually read the patents? I haven't yet, but I'm curious. Marc Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's f*cked up universe simulator.
Marc Clifton wrote: Have you actually read the patents? I haven't yet, but I'm curious. No, Just reading the article was enough for me today. It is Monday:) "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
Michael A. Barnhart wrote: what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. Think American Patent office or English
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
The whole thing makes me sick. Tim Smith "Programmers are always surrounded by complexity; we can not avoid it... If our basic tool, the language in which we design and code our programs, is also complicated, the language itself becomes part of the problem rather that part of the solution." Hoare - 1980 ACM Turing Award Lecture
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The whole thing makes me sick. Tim Smith "Programmers are always surrounded by complexity; we can not avoid it... If our basic tool, the language in which we design and code our programs, is also complicated, the language itself becomes part of the problem rather that part of the solution." Hoare - 1980 ACM Turing Award Lecture
Tim Smith wrote: The whole thing makes me sick I've been playing this over since I read it and I have to ask... what is it that makes you sick about it? Is it the patenting system in general? Is it the fact that they patented an idea that they didn't come up with themselves? Or is it just that you didn't get in first? ;P Paul Why don't you take a good look at yourself and describe what you see - Led Zeppelin, Misty Mountain Hop
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
After reading this I have decided to patent the concept of resperation. I will charge a sutible user fee for anyone interested in inhaling and/or exhaling. Those who do not pay will be sued. You have been warned. ;P
"I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?" -xterm
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
If only I'd thought of that! :jig:
We don't need a thinker! We need a do-er! Someone who will act first, without considering the consequences. - Homer J Simpson
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After reading this I have decided to patent the concept of resperation. I will charge a sutible user fee for anyone interested in inhaling and/or exhaling. Those who do not pay will be sued. You have been warned. ;P
"I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?" -xterm
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If I am reading this right back in 1996 someone patented the concept of ordering from a catalog on a web page. Now this spring he formed a company and signed the rights over to the company who is suing everyone who is using their concepts. (10 at a time). Now I understand every one has greedy members of their society but what idiot awarded a patent like this in the first place. Egad. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021020S0002[^] "Anyone can die, it is how you live that counts." Paul Watson 16 Oct 2002
Two years ago I was doing a contract and got a cease and decist letter from a guy who had basically taken all the concepts of interactive video discs and patented them for DVD. For me, it was a wonderful excuse to dump the stupid project (it wouldn't have made a dime and I wasn't getting paid squat), but it was still very irritating. This guy is a thorn in the side of the DVD community.
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Two years ago I was doing a contract and got a cease and decist letter from a guy who had basically taken all the concepts of interactive video discs and patented them for DVD. For me, it was a wonderful excuse to dump the stupid project (it wouldn't have made a dime and I wasn't getting paid squat), but it was still very irritating. This guy is a thorn in the side of the DVD community.
Joe Woodbury wrote: a guy who had basically taken all the concepts of interactive video discs Did he have the patents, or just applied for them ? Anyone can apply for a patent on anything, doesn't mean it will get granted. But of course, you could have sued him for malicious damage to your business..... Elaine (fluffy tigress emoticon) Would you like to meet my teddy bear ?
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Joe Woodbury wrote: a guy who had basically taken all the concepts of interactive video discs Did he have the patents, or just applied for them ? Anyone can apply for a patent on anything, doesn't mean it will get granted. But of course, you could have sued him for malicious damage to your business..... Elaine (fluffy tigress emoticon) Would you like to meet my teddy bear ?
Trollslayer wrote: Did he have the patents, or just applied for them ? He was getting them granted at a steady pace. If I had the money, I would have filed a bunch of prior art then a challenge to his entire portfolio. Of course we are talking about a government bureacracy that has granted patents for faster than light radios (a joke, but it got through) and a perpetual motion machine (not a joke, but the patent office just announced they are reevaluating this last patent.)