Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EFF To Fight Dubious Patents

Posted by timothy on from the applause-applause dept.

theodp writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a campaign on Monday to overturn patents that it says are having a chilling effect on public and consumer interests. The ten patents initially cited as problematic by the EFF Patent Busting Project are: one-click online shopping, online shopping carts, hyperlinking, video streaming, internationalizing domain names, pop-up windows, targeted banner ads, paying with a credit card online, framed browsing, and affiliate linking. Maybe this will prompt former EFF Board Member Tim O'Reilly to share that killer piece of 1-click prior art that's sitting on his bookshelf!"

5 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. one is missing by nickname_unique · · Score: 4, Informative

    i'm missing the patent on a "progress bar" which is pending in europe.

  2. Re:Too late? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Pretty much everything that can be invented has been either invented or patented already

    I was going to post that the commissioner of the USA Patent Office said that too. In 1899.

    However, a quick Googling later, I have found that this quote is a myth.

  3. I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned.. by the_rajah · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.pubpat.org/ Public Patent Foundation and their work against the same sort of thing.

    --


    "Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
  4. Re:Scary by redhog · · Score: 4, Informative

    You might be partly right, but at least, you are not correct about all of his books:

    http://www.oreilly.com/openbook

    --
    --The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
  5. Re:Patents by ckathens · · Score: 3, Informative
    I know this is merely flamebait, but its so idiotic that i had to respond. As a law student interested in IP, I normally do not have the best impression of patents -- but mainly because of their recent use in software and method patenting. But there ARE good patents. Perhaps the best examples are pharmaceuticals. The drug companies put millions of dollars into R&D EVERY DAY to develop drugs that really help people. Without the protection of a patent system which guarantees they can profit from it either by direct sales or by licensing, NO drug company is going to make these products.

    On the other hand many types of patents and individual patent applications are clearly not even worth the paper they are printed on and the USPTO has some major issues. But don't blast the entire system for the faults of only a niche part of the overall system.