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A Simple Plan To Defeat Dumb Patents
Steve Jones writes "With the EU being rumored to look at software patents again I thought I'd have a look at the root of the problem — the US Patent Office — and work out if there is a simple way to defeat dumb patents. The big thing that defeats a patent is prior art. At the Patent Office they have the definition of Prior Art that includes the phrase: 'known or used by others in this country, or was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country.' Now suppose that every time we have an idea that we think is 'obvious' but that hasn't been done before, or something we think would be interesting but don't have the money to create — that we blogged about that idea, tagging it as 'prior art' via Technorati. This would give people an RSS feed of prior art." Read on for more details of Steve's proposal.
My argument is that by doing this we can, rightly, claim that the ideas have been described in the 21st-century version of a printed publication. Even if that is challenged, it is undeniable that by using the RSS feed it can be proven that people in a given country could have "known" about it.
I'm fed up thinking "Bloody hell I did that ten years ago," or "I thought about doing that, its a bit obvious" — when companies with as little intention as I had in developing the idea start putting the squeeze on businesses and developers. What I've always lacked is the visible proof to submit against a claim. This is a simple suggestion about using the power of the Web to create a massive prior art database. IANAL, but could it be this simple?
My argument is that by doing this we can, rightly, claim that the ideas have been described in the 21st-century version of a printed publication. Even if that is challenged, it is undeniable that by using the RSS feed it can be proven that people in a given country could have "known" about it.
I'm fed up thinking "Bloody hell I did that ten years ago," or "I thought about doing that, its a bit obvious" — when companies with as little intention as I had in developing the idea start putting the squeeze on businesses and developers. What I've always lacked is the visible proof to submit against a claim. This is a simple suggestion about using the power of the Web to create a massive prior art database. IANAL, but could it be this simple?
Ah yes. This sounds a lot like my 'electronic patent-nulling system'. You can license it from me, if you like. Does AU$500/user/year sound reasonable? :)
This kinda ruins step 3: profit
From TFA:
> Now to me it seems that a blog post can be classified in this day and age as the modern equivalent of a "printed publication"
Ah, a J.D. in the old "It Seems To Me" School of Legal Theory. Let me know how that works out for you.
--I'm so big, my sig has its own sig.
-- See?
Anyone else read that title as "A Simple Plan To Defeat Dumb Parents?" All I could think was "Finally!"
Darn it... I thought of this a while ago, I should have patented it. :-)
Seriously, the patent system in the US is broken and I don't think this would help. It, as was previously mentioned, would end up being abused by the patent trolls.
United States Patent Application
A Method For Using RSS Feeds as a Source for Obvious Ideas to Patent
Inventors: Anonymous P. Coward (Internets, U.S.)
So when we're all force to bend over and take it from Big Corp. Inc. at least we have an RSS feed to make us feel better?
:-P
monk.e.boy
Open source, flash charts
A post like this boggles the mind.
When he has a headache does he reach for an Aspirin?
Does he wear cotton or synthetics? - Has he never heard of Eli Whitney, DuPont Chemical?
Does he hand-sew his own suits?
What does he use for artificial lighting? - A torch? A candle? Does he write with a quill, mix his own inks?
When he switches on the A/C does the name Carrier ring a bell? Edison? Tesla?