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. "
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.
I made a joke about this above, but some "process" patents are legitimate, such as technical processes. Do you know how hard it is to figure out how to get strained silicon to grow on a sapphire substrate in usable quantities, but still able to carry a current? Some of these processes involved a great deal of hard work and ingenuity, and that should be respected.
After all, there's no such thing as "One-Click Silicon."
Don't knock HTML email. It makes my life easier, since I
International? EU has postponed their laws on the subject. They might well be rejected now. (one can always hope)
America being pushy on the subject doesn't really help either. There's a growing resentment of the US bullying around European countries. This may well be the downfall of said legislation over here.
the pun is mightier than the sword
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?
I haven't read it yet but if this is so then I don't see how that could possibly be patentable. I recall seeing a debate on cspan or some similar news channel where they were discussing taxing the internet(i.e. pay taxes for purchases online like in a brick and mortor store, which I think is a very BAD idea for a number of reasons), and similar software would be required in order to implement something like that. That would mean all online retailers would have to pay taxes on the goods being solds and taxes for using the method to pay the taxes. I highly doubt this is a valid patent, or at least it shouldn't be along with several other software and business method patents which are as another reader state earlier are complete BS!
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.
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.
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.