Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ex-Microsoft CTO Checks In On Patent Reform

Posted by timothy on from the easy-for-him-to-say dept.

theodp writes "Defending his controversial Intellectual Ventures in a less-than-hard-hitting CNET interview, ex-Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold finds it peculiar that some people get really wound up over patents. 'People generally don't have any problem with the patent system,' quipped Myhrvold, the inventor of Microsoft's patented Television scheduling system for displaying a grid representing scheduled layout and selecting a programming parameter for display or recording, which allows you to more efficiently select shows like Elimidate for viewing."

5 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Not all patents by danbond_98 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not all patents are a problem i don't think, certainly nobody seems to object, it's just when very vauge ideas are patented and stockpiled by big companies that everyone starts questioning if the system needs sorting. Gotta love the idea of having to have a working implementation of the idea, that would at least weed out a fair amount of dodgy patents.

  2. No, no, no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What you mean is that YOU do not have a problem with the patent system. However you do not speak for all "people", and in fact you are markedly different from most people.

    To wit: When you get slapped with a multimillion frivolous patent lawsuit from a tiny scumbag parasite company like Eolas which threatens your very livelihood and business that you have worked so hard to build, you can afford to have uncle bill toss gobs of money at litigating it, then gobs more money at settling or buying off the company if it starts to look like their chances of exploiting a legal loophole to win are nonzero. And in the end you don't feel a thing. Most people can't do this. As a result "people"-- i.e. not you, real people who live outside the ivory tower where half-decade lawsuits are a negligable cost-- do tend to have problems with the patent system.

  3. Make the call by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Go talk to biotech guys and ask them if they want the patent system abolished. They say, "My God!"

    What do they say when you call to tell them that you've patented their DNA?

    1. Re:Make the call by ScrewMaster · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's really no problem, so long as they don't try to replicate. Then you're gonna want royalties.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  4. Not always an issue by captain+igor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just when corporations try, and succeede in patenting things like clicking a mouse inside a window, patents are meant to protect creative intellectual property, not to divvy the basic workings of the world up to corporations.