Slashdot Mirror
Boeing Granted Patent On Mobile Wireless Lan
xoip writes "Boeing Corporation has been granted Patent number 6,990,338 Mobile Wireless Local Area Network and Related Methods. The Luddite Lounge questions the wisdom of granting a patent that leverages existing technology and grants protection based on the application of this technology."
A decent federal judge would look at that and say that the patent only applies to aircraft networks, since the gist of it seems to be that this technique is only really applicable to aircraft systems. I can't imagine a single reason why you'd need something special for a train or bus considering you don't have to turn off mobile, networked devices on either of those modes of transportation.
Yes, it's stupid, but at least this doesn't seem to be a blatant as "we patent the idea of putting a server on something with wings, wheels or a rudder."
where a logical person could deduce a result of said existing technologies
In the U.S., the standard used is a "practitioner having ordinary skill in the art", (US Code Title 35, Section 103) not a "logical person".
To counter the other usual nonsense propagated by Slashdot headlines, claims may be dependent, in that some claims state what is conventional or known, and then a later claim describes a (novel and non-obvious) extension or improvement that constitues the grounds for novelty and non-obviousness. The common technique in Slashdot articles is to mention only the general claim, such as Claim 1 in this case, and crying "how obvious! That's been around since the stone age!" without mentioning the dependent claims 6, or 9, where the non-obvious part is stated.