Slashdot Mirror
San Diego Company Owns E-Commerce
Kernel Panic writes "Looks like you can now be sued for using graphical and textural content on your e-commerce site. As everyone who has an e-commerce site does. A company in San Diego was granted one patent for using graphics and text to sell things on the web and another for accepting information to conduct automatic financial transactions via a telephone line & video screen. They have started their crusade with smaller companies that do not have the financial resources to fight back so as to build a "war chest" to take on larger companies like Ebay and Amazon. One site has taken the offense after becoming one of the first defendants of 50 companies so far. Curiously it appears the company was formed in March of 2002, less than a month before filing for the first lawsuit."
Let's sell off San Diego to Mexico!
I have just applied a patent for the method of accepting cash for goods and services. with my army of lawyers, I'll soon be the richest man on the planet and after that, King of the world!
Revolutions are never about freedom or justice. They're about who's going to be top dog. -- Kilgore Trout
I've just applied for a patent for a system of extracting oxygen from atmospheric air, using things called "lungs" I expect a lot of people will be wanting to use my IP and have to pay me royalties.
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For great justice!
and sue all those companies which are abusing the current patent law system 'till a new one is ready.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
Parent Directory 23-Oct-2002 15:17 -
[DIR] stats/ 23-Oct-2002 03:33 -
Some cats swing, and others don't. Don't you be the kind that won't.
Mess with the best, die like the rest. - Quote from the Movie Hackers.
/. em and show them how it is to mess with us online folk!
Thats right.. let's
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
And I thought I could BS a paper..just look at all of the crap in the "BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION" for both patents.
Even if you don't agree with the patents, you surely have to agree that these people clearly excel at the fine art of creating bullshit.
If only my English teacher could be as easily duped as the U.S. Patent Office.
the US patent office announced today that indeed, their collective heads are up their collective arses.
I had no idea anyone had patented this.
/.ers getting anything?
I better get in line to buy a license to this patent of theirs if I'm going to start my own web businesses. I'll just add this to the 'One-Click' and 'hyperlink' license expenses.
I'm having trouble finding an order form on their web site, though. Seems to be down or something. I better keep reloading until I get it. Any of you other
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
No. The American Trial Lawyer's Association has Congress giving it sexual favors. Laws against vexatious litigation are weak and unlikely to be strengthened any time soon.
...if somehow Panip's servers were attacked using a type of machine that's connected to a telephone line and utilizing a video display?
...for these companies.
VC: "So what's your great new idea?"
Future CEO: "Oh, we don't need a great new idea...we just patented an great old idea."
VC: "And how are you going to make money off an old idea?"
Future CEO: "Simple...we just sue everybody. No engineers, no tech support, no salespeople, no advertising, just lawsuits"
VC: "Brilliant! We'll make millions! [to secretary] Lisa, Get my army of lawyers in here...and call my congressman, I need to pass a few new laws."
It looks like the Patent Office web site may infringe on PanIP's newly granted patents.
How ironic.
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For great justice!
As a senior executive at Pan IP, I have a different view on this from most of you. In my view, patents provide a valuable service in our society, protecting people who create value from those who would steal it.
Patents are also assets, just like any other. Just because my organization buys patents from others, rather than creating them ourselves, doesn't mean that we are due any less protection under the law than someone who buys a car rather than manufacturing it themselves.
Please think deeply on these points, and on the importance to this country and to the world of a free society that protects innovation, before you assume that we represent the forces of evil and that the patent system is somehow "broken".
Thank you.
I'll read through the original two posts that /. posted on this story, and repeat all the high ranking comments. Man oh man, I'll be famous.
I've patented that idea, so don't make me sue anyone.
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
> What sort of imbeciles is the patent office hiring these days?
Look at this and laugh, or weep, or both.
The link is from this article by James Gleick (of "Genius" fame) which has been discussed on Slashdot two years ago.
"There are already a million monkeys on a million typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare." - Blair Houghton
1E6 Scary.
IE6 is scary, yes!
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
Doesn't Al Gore have prior art?
</HUMOR>
(And yes, I know it's an urban legend, hence the HUMOR tags).
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
SABRE????? The same SABRE from the 1960s that every OS textbook in the world uses as an example of an early timeshare system? This guy is on more crack than /. moderators!
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
There are a few things here which speak loads about the US business/legal model (and no, this isn't meant to be US bashing)
- Someone can get granted a patent for doing something that's already being done at the time of the filing. It may not hold up, but it provides ammunition for lawsuits, and isn't that enough for most people? Enter the almighty dollar.
- It takes years to get a patent. During this time, the "innovative" thing you've thought of becomes commonplace, and by the time you actually have the patent, other people have gotten so rich off the idea that they can sue you into the ground.
- People are so afraid of lawsuits and lawyers that they're willing to hand over good money to avoid your countrys' legal system, regardless of whether they're wrong or right. Doesn't that say enough right there?
And, for the obligitory joke, I now intend to file a patent for "stuff", which will "facilitate doing things in some manner", for the purpose of "getting things done, via this stuff paridigm." My revolutionary "stuff" lawsuit will ensure that no-one can ever again do "things" without my express, written consent. And, further, I plan to use my newfound economic power to push for digital copyright restrictions to be placed on "stuff", to ensure that the "things" facilitated by unlicensed copies of my "stuff" cannot be completed. Then, when everything is running on licensed copies of my "stuff", I will the AutoUpdate feature authorized in my "stuff DCP" EULA to sneak in fixes that will not let "stuff" work without calling home to tell me what "things" it is doing. And then, finally, I will take my fortune, close the company, and shut down the server, ensuring that "stuff" cannot call home to report its' "things", and making all the "stuff" shut down across the US.
Then, maybe, with no "things" to do or "stuff" to do them with, all the idiots who made this mess will get their "heads" out of their "ass" and start using their "brains".
10 DO end_rant; GOTO end
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
I plan to patent the process by which you can render a undesirable company's website effectively useless by repeatedly posting stories about it to /.
Dupe posts are
The US Trademark and Patent Office should be arrested and charged along with this small litigious company for fraud and racketeering. They are knowingly and willingly engaging in an activity that supports these extortive lawsuits.
Duplicate articles!
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
What sort of imbeciles is the patent office hiring these days?
Um, probably the same kind they hire to be slashdot editors, they do as much checking for prior art when approving a patent/article.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!
For instance, the fictitious loan officer may ask, "Are you familiar with our loan repayment schedule?" If the customer desires to read the loan repayment schedule, he would indicate his choice. The loan schedule would then be textually displayed. After reading the text, the applicant would proceed to more questions 147 presented by the fictitious loan officer. The customer could continue to additional textual displays about legal responsibilities of obtaining a loan or return to the fictitious loan officer who would continue the presentation.
It seems pretty obvious these people have locked up a completely new form of electronic communication. Let's see . . . where's that "fictitious" button? All I see is preview and submi
I think I will patent the litigation process, so that no one can sue, except with my permission...
Muhahahaha!!!!!
I definitley dont want that GPL'd!
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
Why limit it there? You should interpret your patent really broadly (and retroactively) so you can wave it around like PanIP start threatening every karma whore and since slashdot started despite the fact that their very existance is prior art.
Oh, and FYI just in case anyone's bored of googlewhacking and has lots of money to burn, the word "whoring" has never appeared in the history of the USPTO (although "whore" has a number times, mostly as a typo for "where" and never in combination with "karma" - which itself has appeared 57 times, mostly as the name of a plant).
Yes, I actually obsessively looked that up - that's why I'm posting this with a "No Score +1 Bonus" and turning off the computer, although I do reserve IP rights on the method and the term "patentwhacking".
My next sig will be ready soon, but friends can beat the rush!
No way, you won't profit from my contributions to slashdot.
He saw some dirty arabs and fired. Too bad it was just some friendly kurds, BBC reporters and his fellow cowboys.