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E-Bay Patents Thumbnail Galleries

Posted by timothy on from the trivial-trivial dept.

goaliemn writes: "In yet another stupid patent filed department, E-bay has filed to patent their thumbnail gallery section of e-bay. I know of afew sites that may have existing work well before ebay." Surely someone who works at Ebay can tell us this is a late (or early) April Fool's joke, right?

26 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I'd love to be the lawyer... by ColdGrits · · Score: 5

    Uh-hu.

    How about you go and read up about the patent eBay has applied for THEN come back - you see, the patent is SPECIFIC to online auctions (in fact, not even THAT general!), so your pr0n galleries are irrelevant to the patent.

    I just LOVE the way so many people round here these days post without acquainting thenselves with the basic facts on the subject first :(

    --

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    People should not be afraid of their governments - Governments should be afraid of their people.
  2. US Ebay Patents by DaneelGiskard · · Score: 5

    Even more Ebay patents...

    1 6,167,386 Method for conducting an on-line bidding session with bid pooling
    2 6,073,117 Mutual credit server apparatus and a distributed mutual credit system
    3 6,058,417 Information presentation and management in an online trading environment
    4 6,058,379 Real-time network exchange with seller specified exchange parameters and interactive seller participation
    5 6,044,363 Automatic auction method
    6 6,012,045 Computer-based electronic bid, auction and sale system, and a system to teach new/non-registered customers how bidding, auction purchasing works

    You can find them here.

    Got this from the United States Patent and Trademark Office

    cheers
    mike

  3. I Got Your Prior Art! by Black+Art · · Score: 3

    I don't know the date of their "invention", but there was a web site I worked on MANY years ago. (1996 or so) that used thumbnails in just this manner. The site no longer exists, but the company I wrote it for still does. Incredibly obvious idea. Anyone who has used an image viewing program in the last 10 years could think of a web version.

    --
    "Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
  4. Don't just blame EBay - blame the system by Sanity · · Score: 5
    You can never count on corporations to do "the right" thing, their sole responsibility is to their shareholders and to increase shareholder value. If the law creates a way, immoral or not, for corporations to increase shareholder value, it is in their nature to exploit it. It is the responsibility of lawmakers to prevent this from happening, however lawmakers depend upon corporations to get them elected.

    So what happens? The strong get stronger, and the weak get weaker, we may as well be kids on a remote island being seduced by the Lord of the Flies. We have two ways out, either people start using their vote (unlikely), or technology will come to our rescue just as it did when the printing press helped society break free from the church's control.

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  5. Of course ... by jetpack · · Score: 5

    ... you do realize EBay is only patenting this so they can put the patent rights up for auction, right? You don't suppose the winner of said auction would be a porn site, do you? hmm? ;)

  6. Prior Patent by Skald · · Score: 3

    This cannot stand; Genset holds a prior patent... on thumbnails.

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    "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton

  7. Prior Art: FURRYBID by strredwolf · · Score: 3

    http://furrybid.transform.to has existed for the past six months or so, so this patent's dead on arrival shoud a lawyer want to take up the challenge (but then, IANAL).

    --
    WolfSkunks for a better Linux Kernel
    $Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";

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    # Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
    $Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
  8. I know of prior art! by austad · · Score: 4

    Go to Yahoo! Shopping, do a search for something. It gives a listing of merchandise and thumbnails by pulling images from "a plurality of sites". And since you trade money for merchandise, it can be considered "an online trading environment". Been around forever. Screw Ebay.

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  9. I'd love to be the lawyer... by DESADE · · Score: 5

    I'd love to be the laywer challenging this in court. I'd have a field day showing "prior art" by demonstrating porn galleries.

  10. Welcome to the world of "Utility Patents" by localroger · · Score: 5
    (Thanks to the person above who quoted the patent abstract, which makes this clear, and to the NOLO press and author David Pressman for publishing Patent It Yourself which also makes this clear.)

    Ebay is not patenting thumbnails nor claiming to have invented them. They are trying to patent the use of thumbnails in a new context, as a sales tool for online auctions. There is some precedent for this.

    For example, Post-It (tm) notes are protected by a utility patent. Neither the note nor the adhesive was invented (by 3M IIRC), but the use of the adhesive for the temporary sticking of notes to odd surfaces was a new use for existing technology. And that can be patented.

    This is really no less stupid than Amazon's one-click patent, which of course still doesn't mean it isn't stupid. But don't assume just because every pr0n site in existence has been using thumbnails since the days of Turing and von Neumann that Ebay can't get this through or enforce it.

    (For the curious, the other type of patent is called a design patent and is the kind you would apply for if you had actually developed a new and previously unknown technology.)

    --
    Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
  11. Prior art here (was I'd love to be the lawyer...) by Simon+Brooke · · Score: 3
    ...you see, the patent is SPECIFIC to online auctions (in fact, not even THAT general!)...

    OK, here's a specific example from an on-line auction system I wrote in 1996. This is, to my knowledge, the thirteenth US software patent where I personally have written prior art. Having said that, of course, it was scarcely a novel idea when I used it.

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    I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
  12. Re:Here's the patent.. by SurfsUp · · Score: 5
    So, it sounds like it's specific to online auctions, so although this isn't any less stupid than it originally sounds, I wouldn't start to worry about your online gallery of cat photos too quickly.

    No, not until somebody patents online galleries of cat photos.
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    Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
  13. Re:Rash of stupidity... by Rader · · Score: 3

    Maybe it's defensive patenting.
    Patent something important so that others won't be able to sue you when they beat you to it.

  14. prior art by British · · Score: 3

    Paint Shop Pro has had the thumbnail gallery(called the "browser") for years.

  15. Re:Rash of stupidity... by fishbowl · · Score: 5

    > The problem is the patent office granting all
    >these silly patents.

    Perhaps part of the problem is the court system,
    for not really being available as a venue to those who need it. If it is truly such a disaster to "be sued" even if one is in the right, that defending oneself against being sued
    may put one out of business, then the court system has long ago ceased to serve it's primary purpose -- to protect the people it serves, equally, consistently, fairly, and without prejudice.

    The fact that people and businesses must walk on eggs and comply with extralegal demands, because they fear being sued by someone with more resources than they have, is really an intolerable situation. If we tolerate it, we get the government we deserve -- ruled by the
    corporate entity with the most money, and which suffers the people to consider themselves "free" so long as its own interests are served.

    Guess we need to let this situation go ahead and get worse. When it becomes intolerable enough that people become sufficiently outraged to make the sacrifices needed to bring change, they will,
    just like they have done throughout history.
    In our lifetimes? One wonders. As a society, our lives are just too cozy and pleasant for us
    to really have the stomach for revolution. That might mean people like you and be getting killed at the hands of other people like you and me, or even (gasp!) giving up cable tv or the welfarre check!

    Obviously, things aren't bad enough to drive real change. Yet.

    --
    -fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
  16. Maybe they *do* realize... by Gruneun · · Score: 3

    Maybe E-Bay does realize just how ridiculous the whole patent idea is.

    With the great number of companies trying to patent the most ridculously obvious technologies, perhaps it's emerged as a self-defense mechanism. Sure, patenting something like a hyperlink or a thumbnail gallery is stupid. Everyone who has used the Internet for even a short period of time knows that these are commonly used. Ask yourself though, as a large company (with available money to burn on lawyers), if you're willing to take the risk that some other schmuck will try to patent it first... and possibly... just maybe... win. Losing the right to a patent also decreases the options for someone else to try.

    If E-Bay were to win that sort of patent (and they won't) they could prove they aren't also a bunch of schmucks by announcing that they have no intention of ever enforcing such a patent, but explain they were doing so to protect themselves from just that sort of abuse.

    Or... it could just be my wishful thinking that a large company genuinely has the interest of the common web guy at heart.

  17. Re:Here's the patent.. by Nagash · · Score: 3

    I checked the link out - I don't see a way to look at anything but the abstract, so let's analyze it a bit, shall we?

    A method and apparatus for information presentation and management in an online trading environment are provided.

    Note the bold (my emphasis). This shouldn't affect the cat photos James_G mentioned.

    According to one aspect of the present invention, person-to-person commerce over the Internet is facilitated by providing prospective buyers the ability to quickly preview items for sale.

    Again, this is related to commerce. This basically says that the site is going to be allowing two parties to buy/sell items with some sort of preview system. Duh, right? Right.

    Images are harvested from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information. The user-supplied information includes descriptions of items for sale and locations from which images that are to be associated with the items can be retrieved. Thumbnail images are created corresponding to the harvested images and are aggregated onto a web page for presentation at a remote site.

    This basically says, "people give us info and we show it". What innovation. The only thing of interest will be the aggregation of the images on to a web site (we don't really know what that means yet) and the harvesting of images. I'm sure those are defined somewhere. I doubt it's anything special.

    At face value, it sounds like they are given a link to an image, they go get this image and display it with the description. Extraordinary. Edison would be proud.

    According to another aspect of the present invention, a user may submit a query to preview items for sale. After receiving the query, thumbnail images corresponding to items that satisfy the user query are displayed, each of the thumbnail images previously having been created based upon a user-specified image.

    It's called cataloging. Yahoo! has done this for ages. The "query" probably amounts just clicking along some links that are grouped by similairity. Hell, it may even be a search. Again, I can hardly contain my admiration of such forward thinking.

    The abstract makes it out to be absolutely nothing special. It's all be done before, but since it relates to "online trading environments", it's different. My ass.

    Woz

  18. Misleading Headline... by MathJMendl · · Score: 5

    "E-Bay Patents Thumbnail Galleries" implies that they have won the patent. They have simply filed for a patent, however.

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    "I have not failed. I've simply found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison
  19. Rash of stupidity... by Keighvin · · Score: 3
    Why is there such a rush to patent what should be natural innovation?

    There are many good ideas that are evolved from other good ideas and occur to many making the point of intellectual property moot - this is one of those things (along with hyperlinking).

    Most sectors of business realize this and only patent something that came about through their hard work and research, not just anything that hasn't yet been patented in the field (especially if it's common practice!). Why are they trying to do this, and why is the patent office letting them?

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    Any spoon would be too big.
    1. Re:Rash of stupidity... by Firedog · · Score: 3
      A thousand years from now, students will learn (but not in schools) about the Decline and Fall of the American Empire...


      ...One of the factors that led to the fall of the United States of America and the coming of the Second Dark Age was a stifling of intellectual progress by the transnational corporations of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

      One of the central tenets of the Rational Age, arguably the peak of pre-nuclear civilization, was that scientific and technological progress superseded individual ownership of ideas and concepts. But during the "Greed Years" near the turn of the third millennium, a fundamental shift in values occurred. In a mad rush, the large corporations grabbed every piece of "intellectual property" they could get their hands on, stamping ideas, scientific advances, life forms, and even single words with their brands. Processes that had been used for hundreds of years by indigenous peoples all over the globe were suddenly the exclusive "property" of large corporations.

      Initially, this shift in attitude had little effect on progress, as there was healthy competition between transnational corporations. In addition, certain semi-enlightened governments intervened in order to keep progress moving along, although this intervention was typically incompetently applied. Too little, too late, it only slowed things down.

      There were subtle effects that few noticed at first. The dizzying pace of inventions slowed dramatically as more and more building blocks for new technologies became the exclusive domain of the transnationals. Smaller companies became unable to innovate due to the excessive licensing fees imposed by those who owned the tools and technologies that the innovations built on. Technology began to stagnate.

      It became illegal for curious engineers and inventors to even analyze an existing technology. Consequently, more and more of society was based on technology that was not rigorously tested. Breakdowns of everything from financial markets to air traffic control systems became increasingly more common, until they were eventually accepted as a way of life.

      Discouraged, young people began to turn away from science and technology even more. Fewer and fewer fresh minds were available to create new inventions, and they were poorly trained compared to previous generations due to the ever-degrading state of education. Those who did enter these fields were generally occupied with maintaining, patching, and in some cases, dismantling the technological infrastructure.

      The process was insidiously cumulative; as more corporations merged into single entities, with operations on all the continents, they became too difficult for governments to handle. They continued to merge, and they formed alliances that kept a lid on all technological advances that threatened the status quo.

      Of course, it could not continue forever. The planet's population was beyond its carrying capacity at the time, and the economic production of the planet was based on ever-increasing use of dwindling nonrenewable fuels. Technologies to harness the power of the sun and nuclear fusion had been suppressed by the huge oil and gas conglomerates; they owned these technologies, but sat on them.

      Increasing pollution, the instabilities in cost and availability of energy, and changing climate patterns all took their toll, introducing greater social instability in turn. There was not enough time for society to retool itself to become dependent on newer energy technologies, and the greatest empire the world had ever seen began to unravel.


      ...taken from the Decline and Fall of the American Empire, published 3026 A.D.

  20. What About Porn?! by citizenc · · Score: 5

    From what I understand, porn sites have been doing this for years and years. I can vouch for this fact, being an exp-- err, I only go to those websites for the articles. Really.

    REALLY!

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    CitizenC

    1. Re:What About Porn?! by hobbesx · · Score: 4

      Friggin' thubmnailed articles, I hate reading those things ;)

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  21. Re:Patent jpg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4

    nice try for an FP, but as we all know around here, gifs use LZW compression patented a million years ago by unisys. compuserv got screwed by this. ever heard of burn all gifs day? slashdot was all about posting articles of that. slashdot supports the cause 100%. you can tell. just look at the top of the page. oh wait, title.gif. well, np, look at the story pictures. wait, those are gif too. at least the banner ads are png, oh wait, gif too. good work slashdot. we know you are the most hypocritical site on the web currently.

  22. More Ebay Patents by DaneelGiskard · · Score: 3

    Here are some more I found...

    Integrated Auction for remote online bidders and live participants at an auction site
    Information presentation and management in an online trading environment

    I got this from the website of the European Patent Office

    cheers
    mike

  23. Re:Patent jpg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3
    Instead of patenting GIF, since we can't, how about patenting the idea of using a GIF to "display an object or image, real or imagined, thru the use of any electronic means including but not limited to monitors, televisions, LCD panels, holographic projectors, neural implants, or any other image display device."

    We can also patent the transfer of GIF files thru electronic means, the printing of GIF files, as I doubt any of those are covered in the patent for the GIF format it's self. Is Ebay, Amazon, and everyone sure they can't go back and patent TCP/IP, or electricity while they are at it?

  24. Here's the patent.. by James_G · · Score: 5
    Look here.

    Abstract: A method and apparatus for information presentation and management in an online trading environment are provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, person-to-person commerce over the Internet is facilitated by providing prospective buyers the ability to quickly preview items for sale. Images are harvested from a plurality of sites based upon user-supplied information. The user-supplied information includes descriptions of items for sale and locations from which images that are to be associated with the items can be retrieved. Thumbnail images are created corresponding to the harvested images and are aggregated onto a web page for presentation at a remote site. According to another aspect of the present invention, a user may submit a query to preview items for sale. After receiving the query, thumbnail images corresponding to items that satisfy the user query are displayed, each of the thumbnail images previously having been created based upon a user-specified image.

    So, it sounds like it's specific to online auctions, so although this isn't any less stupid than it originally sounds, I wouldn't start to worry about your online gallery of cat photos too quickly.