Wireless Email Patents Vs. Innovation

Exactly a year ago Slashdot discussed Geoff Goodfellow's early contributions to wireless email and how they were conspicuously absent from the NTP vs. RIM patent fight. Techdirt points us to another early wireless email innovator, Nicholas Fodor, who recently came to the notice of the NY Times. Techdirt uses Fodor's story to highlight the problems with the US patent system that are by now so obvious to this community.

Comments

old is new...

[tomstdenis]

What about the folks using packet BBSes in the 80s? Surely that's wireless email :-)

I think a large problem with patents is that society as a whole doesn't remember anything past 5 years ago. Kids honestly think that "hotmail" for instance, was the first e-mail provider or most significant, (mostly because they're so young that the oldest computer they touched was a P4 in 2000 or whatever).

That being said I hate crackberries so I'm kinda for RIM getting screwed.

Re:What's the solution?

[zappepcs]

but if the entire Digg-like patent system moderation were only people like jcr, it would stand a better chance. Something like the electoral college (not that it doesn't have problems) in that the discussion could be public and you or I could write to any of the college members, but discussion on the board would only be by college members.

If the college members were respected industry people, I believe that it would moderate out any fanboyism, and their opposites.

The NTP patents are at best very marginal and shouldn't have been granted just based on unobvious clause. If there were an opportunity to comment, I'm sure that others would be disallowed for the unobvious clause as well. Without a more general input it is difficult to say what is unobvious to the general public.

Re:What's the solution?

[aplusjimages]

Okay, so reform is needed. But what's the solution, though? Is it legislation-based? Is it market-based? We have to make sure the solution doesn't fuck us over more than the problem it's trying to solve.

I've heard of a proposal where you pay a fee each year, but the longer you own the more the fee goes up. So for the first year it's $2, then it doubles from there each year. So if you are actually applying your patent to work, then hopefully your making a profit to cover the fee each year. The fee will eventually become so expensive that most owners of patents will have to stop paying. Once you stop paying the fee it becomes public domain.

This would prevent people from owning multiple patents that they do nothing with (unless you count suing people for using it.)