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O'Reilly Lawyers Set Up Shop in the Patent Office
theodp writes "On the same day Netizens fumed over the trademarking of Web 2.0 (R), lawyers for O'Reilly were beating a path to the USPTO to file for a trademark on MAKER FAIRE, lest some Irish scallywag try to co-opt that catchy phrase for a conference. Speaking of NETIZENS, USPTO records show O'Reilly once sought a trademark for that term. And while details are sketchy, USPTO records also indicate that O'Reilly not only sought to trademark the term WEBSITE, it was the plaintiff in a scheduled Trademark Trial involving a defendant who laid claim to the phrase WEB CITE."
Do UBUTNU. Do it now!
A bit offtopic, but anyway, where goes...
I watched that show for the first time EVER last night. I was appauled that the 'fair & balanced' new channel allowed him to provide a 'perspective' on the recent NSA wiretap that involved one 'expert' who was nothing more than an ex-speech writer for G.W. Bush. The opening question...."Does this judge want people to die?"
Somehow there was a jump from 'protecting the US Constitution' to 'wanting Americans to die'.
I'm just really worried that Fox news is where most Americans get their news...Flair & Baised.
Brad
We need more of this. The more obviously fraudulent patent claims that go in, the closer we'll get to patent reform.
Seriously.
I want to read up on this more before I decide to act, but like a lot of other people here I spend hundreds of dollars every year on O'Reilly books and probably once every year or two make it out to one of their conferences. I am seriously considering a total boycott of their products and conferences because of all of the stories surfacing of using their lawyers to achieve absurd business objectives.
If O'Reilly is going to be abusive of the patent system, I really don't want to fund a company that encourages their legal department to be so overly litigious. There are plenty of other good publishers out there now of technical books. Until now I had been loyal to O'Reilly because their books are generally good and have historically done a great job of documenting open systems and open source software. It would be a shame to find they are undoing all of that good karma that they earned with the community.
In Soviet Russia, "prior art" claims you!
I thought Al Gore invented the internets...
What will he invent next? He already invented Global Warming.
Erutangis ym si siht.