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Amazon Sued for Patent Infringement
theodp writes "Amazon's 10-K SEC filing discloses that the e-tailer has been sued for infringing on Soverain Software patents for Network Sales Systems (5,715,314 & 5,909,492) and Internet Server Access Control and Monitoring Systems (5,708,780), aka the Open Market patents, aka the Divine cashectomy patents, which Soverain obtained in the wake of Divine's bankruptcy sale."
While we're at it, why don't we just abolish property rights entirely. You know, just because you occupied that house first shouldn't stand in the way of me moving in, locking you out and cashing out all the equity, leaving you to pay off the principal now that you're living on the street.
Seriously, people, these devices were put in place for very well-founded reasons. Just because a thing can be abused does not mean it is worthless. To its logical conclusion, this argument would abrogate the entirety of civilization in favor of complete anarchy.
the patent office needs to completely overhaul the way it handles these intellectual property patents. spam aside, these frivolous patents are the worst thing that has ever happened to the internet.
from attacking Microsoft for developing/'stealing' the idea for installing plugins on-demand, or the completely revolutionary idea of having a computer automatically detect when media is inserted, these lawsuits are a waste of everyone's time and money. owning patents on things like this is, in the computer world, like owning a patent on breathing, or sliced bread.
they would never be awarded to people if the patent office had high-school graduates, or at least semi-computer literate people working there. these government workers deserve to be fired for doing such a shitty job. the bs work that they do would not be tolerated anywhere else, except under ridiculous bureaucracy of the American government.
i'm waiting for someone to come up with a lawsuit claiming to have the rights to using the internet as a tool 'for accessing other networked computers and information across the globe' or hell, even the internet itself.
these patent officers, i'm told, get paid on an hourly basis, so the number of patents they put through has no effect on them. it doesn't matter whether they even read the damn thing (which i'll bet resulted in patents like the ones i mentioned above.)