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International Trade Patent

Posted by Hemos on from the stop-the-insanity! dept.

Luminous writes "According to the Wall Street Journal and this article from MSNBC, the U.S. Patent office is reviewing a patent on all computer-to-computer international trade transactions. 'When and if Mr. Pool's patent becomes final, lawyers hired by his company, DE Technologies LLC, say anyone conducting computer-to-computer international trades over the Internet without the permission of DE Technology will infringe on the company's intellectual property.' " This submission has been coming in a lot - it's scary, but remember that this patent has not been passed yet - and hopefully with this negative attention, it won't be. The Patent Office has notified him that it will be issuing the patent, however.It should be noted that BusinessWeek had this story a a month ago.

6 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. I'll patent international trade over the phone by klund · · Score: 5

    Okay, I'll avoid making the obvious stupid joke here about "I'm going to patent blah blah blah".

    Seriously, what would our economy be like if businesses had taken out patents on trade over the telephone at the begining of the century the way that they're taking out patents on trade over the internet now. It would be ridiculous. Imagine:

    Sears and Roebuck announce One Name Shopping(tm)! Using our patented technology, we will keep your name and address on file in our offices, so when you call, all you have to give us is your name. We will fill out the rest of your mailing label (for the bill and the shipped merchandise) automatically. Available ONLY at Sears and Roebuck. Call us at Pennsylvania 5-6000.

    Bleh. As much as I hate lawsuits and loathe lawyers, perhaps we need a Class Action Suit against the Patent Office for restricting free trade with this sort of nonsense. It's got to stop.
    --

    --
    My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
  2. Ed Pool's phone number and contact info by dmuth · · Score: 5
    From http://www.detechnologies.com/contact.htm:

    Edward Pool

    Phone: (540) 576-3555

    DE Technologies
    12110 Old Franklin Turnpike
    Union Hall, VA 24176

    Email: info@detechnologies.com

    I say we all give him a phone call and send him an e-mail. No threats or anything like that, of course, just to let him know what we think of scum like him who try to patent ideas which have been around for years...

  3. Re:There is nothing intellectual about this! by baka_boy · · Score: 5
    The patent is being filed as a business method, rather than a software algorithm or specific technology. The patent would cover businesses who wish to use any software-based system that handles currency conversions, shipping rate checks, etc., to automate international commerce.

    This class of patent is different, but every bit as insidious as the more general technological ones. I have to agree with the poster above, though, in feeling that this patent would best serve the common good by being granted, so that the major international business players can start leaning against the patent office and Congress a bit harder.

  4. How cant this go through? by DzugZug · · Score: 5
    I cannot imagine how this pattent could possibly be accepted.

    • Prior art: I think they would have to show that people were not doing international computer to computer transactions before the inventor came up with this invention.

    • Obvious: If people are doing "domestic" computer transactions I can't see how anyone could successfully argue that "international" computer transactions are not a logical and obvious next step.

    • Of course, this is the pattent office and they have approved dumber pattents over the years.

  5. Hmmm....this could work by JazzManJim · · Score: 5

    Well, if the Patent Office continues with its past behavior, then this patent is in the bag and Mr. Pool will be a very, very wealthy man. Unfortunately, the fault, as I can see it, lies not in Mr. Pool, but in the patent office for granting a patent on such an ephemeral thing as an idea.

    I'd be interested on the history of this precedent, if anyone can be helpful enough to provide it. Until then, I've some business processes to patent. :-)

    -Jimmie

  6. May already be invalid by General_Corto · · Score: 5

    From the article:
    When he described the system to Randolph N. Reynolds, vice chairman of Reynolds Metal Co., whom he met through a government-sponsored program for small exporters, he says Mr. Reynolds told him: "Patent it, son. Patent it." Messrs. Pool and Mauer, who together own DE Technologies, filed their patent application in 1997.

    He *described* the system to a third party prior to patenting it. Certainly in the UK, that would invalidate the patent application, as the process was now public knowledge. I don't know how things work in the US, as I don't hail from there, but I think he's on shaky ground.