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Microsoft Pockets Patent for Encouraging TV Viewing
theodp writes "Through its WebTV unit, Microsoft was awarded a patent Tuesday for a system and method for encouraging viewers to watch television programs, such as offering viewers frequent-flier miles for identifying the name of a sponsor or the color of an announcer's shirt. In other news, Microsoft took a District Court to task for failing to recognize the existence of prior art for the Eolas web plug-in patent, resulting in a $521 million judgment against the software giant."
Looking at the claims they use the word "broadcast", could it be argued that if a signal over a cable system or satellite isn't a broadcast signal? If so that would definitly limit it to I think ABC,NBC,CBS,FOX,PBS.
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Come on, this kind of encouragement has been going on for DECADES.
RTFP. No, just skimming the Abstract isn't sufficient.
The patent describes a fairly specific method of encouraging and measuring a viewer's attention to detail. It's not nearly as insidious as the impression one might get from reading nothing but a one-sentence summary of the patent.
This happens with every story about patents on Slashdor. Half the posts are "surely product X constitutes prior art, it's different in concept and implementation but a ten-word summary of it would be mostly the same", and the other half are jokes about patenting the practice of filing junk patents. And both halves are certain they have the answer for reforming the Patent OFfice, which is obviously broken and needs to be replaced because some guy on a web message board, with no formal experience in patent law, doesn't understand it.
I give up. I'm heading over to my Preferences page to filter out whatever category patent stories end up in.
And inevitably, some schmuck comes along and points out a fairly trivial point that invalidates someone's joke of "Foo, but ... ON A COMPUTER", makes an anti-anti-patent rant, as if the system must not be broken just because if you look through all seventeen pages of lawyerese there's a single new idea.
I hope you aren't gunning for an 'insightful' mod.
It doesn't take a patent lawyer to judge the worthiness of the system. (There's a perfect example of attempting to put a fox in charge of the henhouse.) It only takes someone who can see that the patent office sees nothing wrong with the single-click patent (or any patent on a result for that matter) or with RAMBUS's submarine tactics. Both of these are obvious innovation stifling patents, yet the PTO's comment is that it's not their job to validate patents... !?!
So, because they've got some budget trouble, they issue government-mandated monopolies to people on whole areas of technology, making it the responsibility of everyone else to police the system. That's like me saying I can't afford to do my job and charging you, at random, for the results of fixing my lack of work.
But yeah, I don't have a degree in patent law so obviously I can't see how patents are getting broader and broader, until they barely mention any specific technology, and are being used to blackmail whole industries.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/thesparque/21116. html
Chapelle's Law of Reality Television
Chapelle's Law of Reality Television is as follows:
If a person brings up as a joke any idea for a reality television show, it will be adopted and aired within approximately one year's time.
Evidence: During the first season of Chapelle's Show on Comedy Central, a skit aired in which Chapelle parodies the popular television show "Trading Spaces" with a show called "Trading Spouses." Coming this summer on the Fox Network is a show called "Trading Spouses," modeled exactly after the Chapelle's Show skit.
Science in Action: Chapelle's Law having been discovered, I will now attempt an experiment to prove it.
You know what would be hilarious? If they did a show like The Bachelorette or something, except it was all women. And they could do it on HBO or Showtime or something so they could show all the good stuff.
That would be so funny.
Comment of the year