Canadian Company Claims RDF Patent

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."

Comments

Common Idea?

[Sc00ter]

When is a common idea common? There are so many things that are patented, various types of paper bags, slightly different bottle caps.. Different type of tires that are almost exactly the same as other types of tires.. It's very easy to claim that something is a common idea once it's been invented and patented.

It just seems silly that all the geeks are bitching about common ideas on patents now when common stuff has been patented since the beginning of patents.

blah!

[loraksus]

Someone meeds to stop by their headquarters and throw a friggin brick through the biggest window in the office. Then take pics, post them to freenet.
Seriously, stupid shit like this has got to stop, companies like rambus doing their patent fairy dance, the fuckin tivo/sonicblue bullshit, shit like trying to take a domain name away from a person who registered the name years before the company existed...
http://save.unicom.com/

I'd think the courts in this country would realize that pulling this sort of crap is not cool. If you're gonna make something propriatery and want to keep it secret
Of course, this is assuming that there is a pre-school level of technical ability / understanding in the patent office.
Fuckin' lawyers. . .