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More Microsoft Patents
An anonymous reader writes "One of the editors of LinuxWorld Magazine has an entry in his blog detailing more patents that Microsoft recently acquired. No, this isn't a rehash of the sudo patent. The new patents include one that seems to patent the use of the keyboard to navigate a web page! See the article here."
Cheers,
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
How obvious does it have to be for the USPTO?
You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
Just try to tell me lynx didn't do it before IE.
Qui ne va pas à la chasse n'a pas de gibier
PHP Queb
"A user may discover and navigate among hyperlinks through the use of a keyboard. For example, a user may press a tab key to discover and navigate to a first hyperlink that is part of a hypertext document."
Replace the tab key with the cursor keys and you've got the Lynx browser. Jeez, what a pile of nonsense.
...what will happen when a few companies have patented all the stupid, obvious shit that people have just been doing for so long, that in the short range seems to make sense, but in the end, ends up bringing down the whole patent system?
Is that what Microsoft really wants, to bring it all down so that it can get MSIP (Microsoft Intellectual Property) 1.0 codified into law, where everything is backed instead purely by contract law and the terms they put into all sorts of "implied by viewing", "implied by reading", "implied by opening", etc., EULAs that can be changed at a whim without notification to the other parties by Microsoft?
What next, patenting the idea of a "machine" that takes a textual, human-readable source of information and transforms it into machine-executable language, aka the compiler?
It almost reads like someone who just doesn't give a damn anymore, so they just start going to extremes in anything and everything, a scorched earth social (or business) policy. "Better to burn twice as bright than fade away!"
Hopefully Microsoft will single-handedly make a mockery of the patent system (more specifically software patents) which will force the system to be reviewed sooner, and maybe some positive changes can come to it. On the other hand it's going to be tough in the meantime for the small developer to be caught up in small web page navigation patents and such in court.
There have been some silly patents covered here on slashdot, but these have got to be some of the silliest. What's next, a patent on the wheel?
On the contrary: Perhaps funding is the issue. If they make money for every patent filed, there's no incentive for them to throw out or even discourage bogus patents.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: We need a statute of limitation on patent infringement suits! They already do this in China!
One of the major problem with patents (in my mind) is the fact that patent holders are permitted to sit on their patents and do nothing, even when they are aware of infringing acts. Then, 10 years down the road, they spring out of nowhere with the infringement suit. This is what Unisys did with GIFs. Unisys allowed the web to become addicted to GIFs, without filing any suits. No, no... they bided their time! Wait until everyone is dependent on GIFs, THEN spring the trap; that's the key! I find this behavior to be underhanded and repugnant. UNISYS HAD TO KNOW! As if they were not aware that GIF was the image format of choice on the web. It's impossible.
An infringement statute of limitation would prevent possible future evils, too. For example, how long has Microsoft known about SAMBA, and not done anything about it? Might they not enforce their IP at some point in the future, when Linux is finally becoming accepted on the desktop? To kill SAMBA at that point would severely cripple Linux desktop adpotion. A statute of limitations would prevent this.
I'd even go so far as to suggest that a similar statute of limitation be applied to copyright violation suits. If a copyright holder IS AWARE of an IP violation, then they must file suit within a specified amount of time (2 years?), or lose the right to do so, in that instance. It's easy to see how this would benefit society: SCO.
Visit the Game Programming Wiki!
The amount of funding isn't the issue, it's the method of funding.
The more patents they approve is the more people and corporations that will apply for patents. The more applications they get, the more money they receive.
The system promotes a cycle in which they approve patents easily because they don't have the staff to do sufficient reviews, and the increased approval rates attract more patent applications, which makes it even more difficult to do sufficient reviews.
There needs to be an incentive to reject stupid patents. Any patent overturned in court should have the court costs paid by the patent office, and/or the examiner(s) who approved it should be somehow penalized.
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There is inferior bacteria on the interior of your posterior.
Are you aware of every single patent application in the past 30 days? Yeah, me neither. There are so many patent applications, even those who are being paid to keep track of it all seem unable to accomplish that feat. Thus, patents get into the system without much notice. When someone runs across an "interesting" one and brings it to light, it is that "shedding of light" that makes it "news."
To use an overly-blunt analogy, it's not the death of a dinosaur that makes the news, it's the discovery of its fossil remains. The death event is "many" years ago, but it's still worth reporting today when the fossils are discovered, especially if there's something unusual about it, since we're all pretty familiar with fossils in general. (This analogy won't be as useful for those who believe dinosaurs didn't exist and that their bones were planted in the ground by Satan to confuse us and turn us away from our Holy Creation origins.)
No Laughing Allowed!
They also force abortions and shoot dissenters in China. So what?
Still, that "invention" (the tab navigation one) has been used WAYYYY before IE 3
Instead of wasting money "defending" against bogus patents, how about investing in fixing the patent system?
Two questions:
1) How exactly does a company do that? Sure, they can lobby, but despite common opinion here that often comes to nothing, and they wouldn't be lobbying unopposed. Also, given that this is MS we're talking about, the company that everyone loves to hate, the politicos may well be wary of being seen to be too cooperative.
2) In the meantime, they're still just as vulnerable to attack, with the added bonus of not being able to fight back as effectively. How does the CEO explain to the shareholders why they're deliberately avoiding taking out patents (thus reducing their assets relative to the rest of the industry) and simultaneously potentially leaving themselves open to costly litigation?
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I'm planning to write my congressman about the problem. He was pretty responsive the last time I wrote about another issue. Does anyone have a pointer to accurate sources I can refer to in my letter?
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By the time we get everything turned around with all the Big Businesses, it will strictly be a game of catch up.
Ten years. At that point, it'll be in full avalanche. Either it gets solved, and not just abated, in ten years or the game will be in China. Possibly Germany and a spattering of European nations. India and America will be the next contenders to un-seat the Throne.
Wh00t for Intel. And Microsoft. And Time-Warner. And Orin Hatch and his motley clan of Mormons. And CIGNA. And Pfizer...
As the law stands now, companies try and remain ignorant of any patents filed by their competitors, thus (in theory) minimising their liability while enabling business as usual. The contingency plan in the event of being accused of patent infringement seems to be to be one of trying to fight the patent first, and if that looks like failing enter into a cross licensing deal with your own patent portfolio. Given that stance, even if patents are open for public review prior to approval, I doubt many companies would be willing to review and submit challenges if doing so might negate their claim to ignorance in the process. Sure, they might get patent application X annulled, but if they are found to be infringing upon approved patent application Y then they are going to find it much harder to show they were unaware if they are demonstrably reviewing patents.
The current situation with patents at the USPTO has gotten way too far out of hand, probably so much so that recovery isn't likely to happen no matter what is done. Even so, it's going to be better to at least make an attempt at reigning things back in than doing nothing at all, but I don't think that patent lawyers raking in the dollars are going to be too happy with that idea...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
"It doesn't patent "the use of a keyboard to navigate a web page." What it patents is, as far as I can tell, the use of the tab key to navigate to and to place a non-rectangular highlight over a weblink, or to place any-shaped highlight over an imagemap."
and you think it's better? You are crazy, sorry.
And the dummies that modded you up too.
Fortunately you had a reasonable employer. I don't think a lot of people would have the luxury of saying, "Nope, that's a Windows box, I'm not touching it." I think in that case, a lot of employers would simply drop you like a hot potato. Especially since it's very easy to do when you've just been hired and you're still in your 30-90 day probationary period.
I like to be idealistic too, but not when it interferes with the livelihood of me and my family. The whole Linux-vs-Windows thing simply isn't important enough to me to place my job in jeopardy.
Fortunately, it's not an issue: I use both at work, and both systems are equally well liked.
Please visit a previous thread to see what kind of a moron our Patent Office has become:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/04/1825 22 7&tid=154&tid=1
We know that U.S Patent Office is notorious of issuing patents (particularly software patents) that are clearly unpatentable. But very few are aware that U.S. Patent Office is violating our constitutional right by promulgating and enforcing a Microsoft-IE-only policy.
This little-noticed law really makes me mad and feel like crying--why a government agency can be so stupid.
Basically, when you file a patent application, if the Patent Office thinks that your invention is not patentable because it is not novel or nonobvious, it will send you copies of prior art patents so you can rebut their rejection.
Now the Patent Office has changed its policy and will not send you those hard copies. Instead, it requires you to download those prior art reference on-line.
Under ordinary circumstances, this would not pose any problem, except that we are dealing with one of the most stupid government agencies in the history of mankind. The United States Patent Office, without much notice, now requires that, in order to download those references, you must register with the Patent Office, then the Patent Office will install a program ON YOUR MACHINE WHICH MUST BE RUNNING MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER UNDER MICROSOFT WINDOWS to allow you to communicate with the Patent Office before you can download those prior art patents that our government must furnish you as a matter of our constitution right and as part of the filing fees paid to the Patent Office.
Thus, basically it has boiled down to this stupid law: if you want to receive a patent, you are now REQUIRED BY LAW to have a machine with Microsoft Windows running Internet Explorer in your office.
In other words, in order to exercise your constitutional rights, you must have a machine that runs Microsoft Windows and you must set Microsoft Internet Explorer as your default browser.
What kind of stupid government agency is this? I know many banks used to have the same requirement (i.e., using Microsoft IE running in Microsoft Windows), but they have got rid of this stupid policy because they have to compete in order to survive.
The United States Patent and Trademark can implement and insist such a stupid policy because it doesn't have to compete. But what about those 4000+ patent attorneys? How come all of them are so quiet? Are all of them idiots?
Even our HomeLand Security Department has changed its Microsoft-only policy. It appears that our Patent and Trademark Office is the only government agency in the whole world that requires its users to use Microsoft Windows. Unlike Homeland Security Department, the U.S. Patent Office has to account to no one!
Microsoft survives and propers exactly because our government agencies are unafraid to abuse their power and unashamed of being idiots.
and
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=120633&thres ho ld=0&commentsort=0&tid=154&tid=1&mode=thread&pid=1 0160890#10163299
Article I, section 8, of the Constitutuion specifically provides that: "Congress shall have power . . . to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries."
Congress has the power to determine what can or cannot be patented (e.g., mathematical formulas cannot be patented, but mathematical formulas reduced to software code can, etc.)
Congress also vests in administrative agencies, e.g., the Patent Office, certain rule-making powers. Those rules, once promulgated, are equivalent to "laws", though they are much easier to be challenged in court. In order to exercise those rule-making powers, the agencies must follow certain well-defined procedure (e.g., publishing Official Gazette as Federal Register), AND
I don't think people switching to linux is really going to stop them.
People switching to Linux, and then convincing their friends and relatives to switch to Linux, is exactly what will stop Microsoft - in the end.
You're going to need to get Linux to over 50% market share before we find any type of interest from Microsoft to maybe stop doing the crap they're doing.
That's backwards. Microsoft is already scared by Linux, which is why they talk about viral licensing, TCO, and cut special deals to keep people from switching. MS has reached market saturation with nowhere to go but down. That's why they switched from selling software to renting it. They no longer give stock options as rewards to employees because the options don't get above water. As MS continues to lose market share, it will only increase its efforts to patent everything in sight in order to protect its territory and inhibit F/OSS. It hasn't gotten nasty yet - it will.
There is such a thing as the Separation of Powers, and the President (Bush) has no power to dictate what the Judicial Branch does.
The grandparent said that Bush's Justice Department dropped the suit against Microsoft. The Justice department is not part of the Judiciary, it answers the the Attourney General of the United States of America. The grandparent is in fact correct that the Justice department under Bush caved on the Anti-trust suit. Whether Bush had anything to do with it is another question.
Why?
Assuming the plan *COULD* work (it would never be imposed), simply add a rule that if the patent is filed in the janitor's name, then the janitor owns it, not the company. If the company lays claim to the patent (via a w"e own everything you do" employment contract), then the company owns the patent not the janitor even though he filed it.
The problem isn't so much the penalties, it's that patent applications don't seem to be denied even when they obviously should be. The USPTO needs to start denying applications.
What would put a brake on some of this nonsense is to have, as part of the patent review process, a period of one year of public comment on each. The public would then have the opportunity to comment on whether or not the patent was "novel" or "obvious", and can bring up prior art. The patent examiners would be required to take the public comments into account when they rule.