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Sun Files For Patent on Software Licensing Method
cft_128 writes "CNet writes that Sun Microsystems President Jonathan Schwartz has filed for three new patents, one of them on the companies per-employee software pricing plan. The pricing patent application was summarized: 'Method for licensing software to an entity, including determining a per-employee cost for the software, determining a number of employees of the entity, and determining a total licensing cost using the number of employees and the per-employee cost, wherein the total licensing cost comprises a software license for all employees of the entity and all customers of the entity.' The plan was introduced last year on Sun's Java Enterprise System, charging $100 per employee. Schwartz did say that any money the patents generate will be donated to charities."
Sun is allowed to do this.
Karma: Terrible - and proud of it!
I'm curious, when are they going to patent the rogue patenting method?
Yeah who would have thought Sun would change their behaviour after that famous settlement? I mean this patent reads like, "we are going to calculate how to make lots of money and double it by preventing others from doing the same".
Schwartz did say that any money the patents generate will be donated to charities.
Yeah, sure. What percentage? There is absolutely no way to qualify that shit, so I don't buy it. Business plays the charity card when they know the public image will take a hit from a particular action. The Cnet title reads "Sun's Schwartz guns for patent glories", not Sun donates 100% of patent earnings to Cancer cure or anything like that.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
/greger
Does anybody else have the feeling that just when you read a story about a patent claim that is so absurd that you can hardly believe anyone would come up with it, let alone grant the patent and you think that it simply can't get any worse one of our beloved IT companies comes up with a patent claim that is even more ridiculous?
How on earth the EU can contemplate bringing this braindead patent system to Europe is beyond me.
Heck - what next, someone getting a patent on the combover ? Patenting of the combover
In other words they're patenting it FOR MS to use, not to prevent MS from using it!!!!
A large data base company gave use prices based on Mhz of CPUs on the machine running the database (with a multiplier for Risc Cpus.) I thought that was inovative!
But seriously, if you install more copies you pay more. This is called selling and shouldn't be patented.
Schwartz did say that any money the patents generate will be donated to charities.
Of course the money coming from licensing the patents doesn't matter - it's the chilling/killing effect it has on competitions that makes it sweet.
MSFT could as well give all the patent revenue money to charities - hell, they could burn the money. The money from patents is peanuts, as long as it keeps the other guy down.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
Has the test of obviousness just been forgotten? I don't know which is worse either, the per user licensing or using "extra" faces on 3d representations of 2d objects to provide additional interfaces.
Seeing as though Sun are saying they will donate any proceeds to charity makes me wonder if this is in fact a deliberate attempt to attack existing patent database and in particular the US PTO's ability to grant patents. Could they really seriously think these can fly?
Prior art anyone? I know I've seen software sold on the basis of the number of people, and surely some of the previous 3d desktop efforts have done something like the notetaking example given for the 3d patent I mentioned above?
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
Quote: "Schwartz did say that any money the patents generate will be donated to charities."
Translated: "We are evil, but we will do it in a good sort of way"
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
The ultimate in irony? Choosing EFF as the charity to donate the money to.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
Relationship Change
User SUN.COM has made you their foe.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
It seems Sun is attempting to patent multiplication.
:)
u * p = c
U = # of users
P = Price per user
C = Cost
It should be noted that a variation on this formula can also break any form of encryption on the net.
It looks like the US is falling to the lowest common denominator. If one big player does it, the others have to follow or lose out.
/.ers.
If Sun are giving any patent royalties to charity, then I suspect they're saying "we don't want this, but we've got to do it". I'd sort of imagine they wouldn't need to bother collecting any money for the patent though, would they?
It looks to me like most folks here have a problem with the fact that such a patent can exist, and can get past the utter stupidity of the USPTO, as opposed to anything to do with Sun doing things as lowly as MS et al. CNet are hamming it up for the benefit of chest-beating
Do something about that daft patent system. And please don't let it happen here in Europe. It's only a way to create jobs in the PTO and Law sectors, everyone else loses.
Is it really possible to patent a legal contract? This is insane!!
"Prior art anyone?"
We need a WikiPriorArt like Wikipedia. So when you ask that you know where to go to check up. And if you do have prior art, you'd go there also and input the prior art.
Also it could be used to publish ideas so they act as prior art against future patent ideas.
Donate free food here
Firstly, I do not wish to offend anyone with this post but I have had enough of the amount of mis-information floating around the net about patents.
:
Most of you guys seem to be peddling the tired old mantra of 'all patents are bad! grab your pitchforks and burn all patent attornies at the stake!'. How much do any of you guys really know anything about the patent system and how it works? By reading these posts, it seems that very few of you seem to have real life experience with patents at all. Instead all most of you seem to know is the hysteria that the mass media, Slashdot included, feed to you about how patents will be the end of the world.
I agree that the patent system is old and outdated. I agree that software patents are entirely inappropriate due to the frequency of independent reinvention (which should raise the bar for obviousness and novelty to a very very very high level). In fact, I believe software patents are the wrong way to go as they only stifle creativity and invention in the industry. They should be abolished just like patenting a literary construct, a musical cadence, or a work of art is not allowed.
I do not, however, believe that obviously trivial patents such as the Microsoft double click patent and the Sun per-employee patent are relevant to anyone. These patents are obviously invalid due to mountains of prior art. Should Sun or Microsoft attempt to sue someone for patent infringement, the defendent can literally take a laptop to court loaded with any program that exhibits double clicking or per-employee billing that was dated before the patents filing date. With double clicking and per-employee billing, there are hundred of examples of such programs. And then, the case will be thrown out of the court. The patent will be nullified and cancelled. It is that simple. And the only negative effect to all of this is that Sun and Microsoft have wasted money getting such a useless patent filed.
To preempt the obvious replies
- NO, Microsoft and Sun cannot magically 'bog you down with their legal team forever until you pay up'! With such an obviously invalid patent, the case is so ridiculously clean cut it will never ever stand up in court, even if they had a thousand lawyers trying to figure out a loophole.
- "Why have such patents been granted at all? This is a collosial failing of the patent office! Burn it down!" - I agree, except for the arson part. But the point is, IT DOESN'T MATTER! Patents, like laws, are not set in stone. The validity of patents is, and always has been, decided in the courts. If the patent office has stuffed up, it will be straightened out the moment someone tries to enforce their patent. And as mentioned above many times, trivially incorrect patents will be deemed void by the courts. No refund given to the companies that have spent money filing the obviously incorrect patent.
I mean, the patent office is not perfect as the people inside are not perfect. Can YOU say that you have never made a single mistake at work before?
Again my purpose is not to offend but merely to attempt to clarify what I think is a tendency to focus on the wrong issues with patenting, and to clear up some of the mis-information about patents. The hysteria the mass media like to whip up about trivial patents is entirely the wrong focus. It is not because of these patents that software patents should be abolished. It is geninue software patents that actually have substance and novelty that really damage the industry. It is these patents that are harmful, because with such patents there actually IS room for argument in court, and the litigation fees could destroy a small company. It is these 'good' patents that will destroy software, and the reason software patents should be abolished. THE TRIVIAL PATENTS ARE IRRELEVANT AND ARE NOT THE REAL ISSUE HERE!
Let the flames begin...
- NO, Microsoft and Sun cannot magically 'bog you down with their legal team forever until you pay up'! With such an obviously invalid patent, the case is so ridiculously clean cut it will never ever stand up in court, even if they had a thousand lawyers trying to figure out a loophole.
I think any prudent business owner would be wise to get a lawyer if MS or Sun or anyone came after them. This would cost money that a small business might not be able to afford. The implied threat of these lawsuits would be enough to keep a small developer far away from the broad area staked out in the patent.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.