Slashdot Mirror
Prior Art for Hyperlink Order Tracking in Email?
Davesbud asks: "I'm trying to invalidate a patent that claims to have invented 'placing a hyperlink in an email which in turn provides the recipient with order status or tracking information.' I am searching for any web pages, articles, newsgroup/forum discussions, brochures or the like, published before December of 1997, that describes this idea. You've seen this if you've ordered almost anything online or shipped by FedEx or UPS. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks."
The patent system is useful for drug companies. Only by gaining a monopoly over the drugs that they have invented can progress continue. These drugs have ridiculous R&D costs, hence their high purchase costs. When generic versions are made available, the generic manufacturers can sell the same thing without having to pay for any R&D at all. This is why the patent system exists.
When there are companies dedicated to purchasing patents and suing people, however, you know something is wrong. Just like cybersquatting is illegal, this ought to be illegal as well. Things that are as obvious as a hyperlink in an email, where the patent obviously does not benefit future progress, ought not to be patentable.
"Patents are necessary to cure sick people" is a Republican myth. A new drug that works comes out once a decade -- these companies are making fat profits off the ones that merely didn't kill enough people to fail FDA approval. A limitation of patents to only drugs that make people live longer would have a good effect, but then so would eliminating patents completely.