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Canadian Company Claims RDF Patent

Posted by timothy on from the patenting dept.

quinticent writes: "Looks like they are at it again. Companies seem to like to let a standard become, well, standard before pulling out the lawyers to claim they own a patent on it. Now some Canadian company is claiming they own a US patent on RDF (doesn't Slashdot use RDF?). When will the US government realize that allowing patents on common ideas is just wrong? The CNet article is here."

1 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Common Idea? by stubear · · Score: 4, Interesting
    "Lets say Guttenberg didn't patent the printing press, but some yutz came along three years later and was able to convince the USPTO to allow a patent for a "Method of communicating using text produced by a printing press""

    This can't happen because Guttenberg, or anyone else for that matter, could prove prior art.

    I think the original question has merit. What is a common idea? Isn't instamatic film an idea? The patent covers the implementation itself but it's nothing more than an idea.

    RDF is an implementation of XML and XML is nothing more than an idea of ways to make data seamless. It's the DTD that is the actual implementation of which RDF is one, and it is patented.

    The problem is not with the patent, it's with the process by which patent claims can be checked and with the way with which courts allow patnet owners to lie in wait before filing a law suit. The patent process needs to be revamped, not what gets patented.