Slashdot Mirror
Business Process Patents Taking The World By Storm
Siriaan writes "DE Technologies, a company based in Montreal, has hit a number of web retailers in the U.S., New Zealand and Singapore with patent infringement claims covering such things as purchase histories and online currency conversion. A small wooden model kit firm my company does business with is amongst those hit; they received a demand for a US$10,000 'signing fee' and then 1.5 percent of all transactions ongoing. "
just wanted to be first for once... nothing to add.
If this kind of thing is allowed to continue, I suspect that the world's economies will spend the next two decades in a sort of "dark ages" where only the largest companies will be able to do business. Note that the targets of these insane patent suits are always the little guys, because there is no expectation that they can fight back. Once the big companies realize that they can get away with this kind of abuse of the patent system, you will likely see a flurry of activity where large companies simply outlaw competition via absurd licensing fees on things like "selling product (via common, but not yet patented channel)" or "maintaining a customer list (in a DATABASE)". I mean, feel the innovation!
Makes me ill.
Sig under construction since 1998.
Seriousy, I have had some long chats to my (lawyer) brother about this. Has anybody heard of any real, legitimate, honest-to-goodness, business process patents that have been granted and licensed?
Obviously, being an engineer, I believe that technical processes should also be public domain...
Don't knock HTML email. It makes my life easier, since I
Software patents are bullshit. "Process" patents are bullshit. Lawyers will take advantage of this bullshit to extort money. Unless you're richer than the suing party, you have no chance of winning. Either pay up, stop violating the patent(s), or move to a non-fatally-fucked-up country where such asinine patents remain illegal. The game is OVER here in the US (and soon the EU) for everyone but the big corporations, though most of the sheep haven't figured it out yet.
The more I read these stories about the abuse of the American (and now international) patent system(s), the more I believe things like HavenCo and Sealand have a good idea behind them. Until it gets really bad, I suppose you could simply move your site hosting from country to country, but for the love of god when will this end? As a little guy software developer with a site (shameless plug - NanoWeb, but it needs an update) I am beginning to fear that my after hours source of a little play money could get me into legal trouble for using techniques and technologies that have been used collectively on the net for years! We thought the "Microsoft Tax" was bad, how about making up for the 1.5% patent taxes?
"1984" was ment to be a warning, not a guidebook. You hear that Kim Jong-il!? BushCo?!
I Am Not A Lawyer, but it should be business as usual. File the letter away and ignore them. Their tactics disgust me - their patents should never have been accepted, they're trying to get away with extortion.
It's nothing more than a modern-day form of a protection racket (with "signing fee" money up front to allow you to continue doing business).
In fact, looking at their white paper - the patent link is broken - the system they appear to have patented is a system which automatically adds any taxes you have to pay onto the bill (so, for instance, if the buyer is in Europe, adding on VAT). How on earth can you patent something like that?
heh, no problem. You could just move your software and hosting to Asia. If they come near you, Just kill them. What will be next ? Patenting how to fuck a woman ?..."If you put your cock in a certain way into a womans ass/vagina, you have to pay us $10 for each penetration."...*lol*... I'm sure some mad guy will start to killing these patent holders soon... Trust me, it'll happen.
I haven't been reading slashdot for to long but this type of story seems to be a frequent feature and absolutly nothing seems to change about it. The real world just seems not to care and absolutly no precedent is being set to deter future cases of this disease. Is there no organisation that is willing to make a trail case out of this to create precedent so that future leeches will think twice before trying this?
After all the one thing these stories have in common is that after they got a few little guys to pay up they vanish without a trace. They know that in a court they will be thrown out and will then have to pay any legal costs that have been mode by the other side. So they can only win against those that can't afford to make the initial lawyer investment.
Sad really. Oh and americans, it won't belong till the next election. Try to vote for someone else then the guy promising the lowest taxes for once will you.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
And there isn't even possible to patent business methods in Canada.
Talk about double standards, eh.
I think as soon as anyone fights this, the patent(s) will be nullified. This is like patenting the idea to hand out a receipt. I could see patenting your register technology, but the receipt (or invoice in this case) long predates the internet. Surely, the idea of international computerized commerce existed long (long being relative to the age of the internet) before they applied for the patent. This is an unreasonable form of leeching.
if this works, then there needs to be serious reconsideration of current patent laws.
Fighting it will only prolong the amount of time that humanity is going to have to suffer due to patents. Making small gains is actually a detriment to the anti-patent movement, because all that does it legitimize the system while allowing it to perpetuate. Instead, let these things happen. Let somone patent a business process for "a way of exchanging currency or credit for good or services", or let someone get the software patent for "performing bit manipulation of various forms on a 'computing' device".
Just remember, the old saw, "never cost anyone more money than they are willing to pay to have you killed". It applies to business too. Once you start costing enough money to business then they'll do whatever it takes to make sure you don't survive. If you are costing a corporation more money that it costs to buy a congressman or two, then you need to be prepared to find your business model suddenly become illegal or heavily regulated.
Patent the business process of identifing an existing business practice, patenting it, and demanding royalties from companies using this business process. When such patent is granted, send a letter to them demanding a percentage of their litigation proceeds.
Someone give me the address of this place, and I'll firebomb them.
Oh, and are you planning to go live there yourself? Otherwise your own body is subject to laws where it physically exists. You can park your data on Pluto, it doesn't make your physical self immune from U.S. laws.
However! A consular passport will give you diplomatic immunity! For a very small fee, I can arrange for your accredidation by the The Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia. Or you can apply for annexation by The Kingdom of Talossa. Too late to emigrate to The Republic of Minerva, though.
So, I can legally rob liquor stores by hiring on with a company that's incorporated in another country that sanctions such activity? Cool!
It looks like they were trying this on in the US in late 2000 - did they get anywhere?
...
Seems unbelievable
Since neither of us are lawyers, perhaps it would be more productive if you cited a case of a company that had employees in that were able to avoid a local law because they were incorporated somewhere else.
Christ preached peace. He got crucified, and the Romans ruled for 500 years later, followed by 1500 years of European war mongers, followed by 100 years of American war mongers.
Ghandi preached peace. Then, he got shot, and India and Pakistan spent 50 years at war.
John Lennon said all he needed was love, then he married Yoko Ono, and got shot (don't know which is worse!)
Really, the thing to do is to quit complaining about the powers that be and just lop off their heads. The French did it in 1789, why can't we!
This is my sig.
http://tinyurl.com/gmmw (Ed) Pool said DET has now "demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that we invented this technology. We wrote the song and everybody's playing it but nobody wants to pay - it's time to collect." Pool wouldn't say how many letters were sent or whether Web sites in the U.S. or Singapore, were warned. "We have sent letters to certain firms," he said. "This is a multi-continental task. As it becomes to our advantage, and on our time and on our terms, we'll enforce the patents."
Pool, an American who moved DET from Virginia last year when Canadians invested in the private firm, said DET is "entitled to a royalty on international transactions done computer to computer. Those New Zealanders are using our technology, for heaven's sake, and they're going to pay or they're going to stop violating the 505284 patent."