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Patent Reformers O'Reilly, Bezos Mum on 1-Click
theodp writes "Brought together 7 years ago by a threatened boycott over Amazon's 1-Click patent, Tim O'Reilly and Jeff Bezos vowed to reform the U.S. patent system. So in The Register's Open Season podcast (@12:25), Andrew Orlowski finds it very ironic that news of a victory by LOTR choreographer Peter Calveley against Bezos' 1-Click patent broke as O'Reilly was once again busy trotting out Amazon-tied speakers to headline a Web 2.0 conference, this one sponsored by Fenwick & West, the prestigious law firm bested by Calveley. Orlowski notes that O'Reilly, who now counts Bezos among his investors, was oddly silent for a self-described software patent protester, especially one who once vowed to torpedo 1-Click. Equally untalkative was Bezos, who deflected questions on the damage done by Calveley's DIY legal effort, telling a Wall Street analyst to 'refer to our public filings' (although nothing on the subject appears in the 8-K and 10-Q filings). One last dose of irony — in explaining the prior art he used to reject the 1-Click claims, a USPTO Examiner cited the very same TV remote control patent that was deemed to be unsuitable in a 1-Click prior art contest run by the O'Reilly and Bezos-bankrolled BountyQuest (just last year, Amazon testified to Congress that the contest failed to find prior art for Bezos' patent)."
At the time, the patent was valid and amazon (etc) was acting in good faith. Most patent license agreements include a clause that there is no refund if the patent is invalidated. If a patent lawsuit resulted in a jury awarding damages, you could appeal that. If you spent time and money working around a patent, you don't have any recourse.
I also think No Starch Press makes some good books.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Book Burro (bookburro.org) is a Firefox extension that would give you prices of books at other sites when browsing Amazon (or vice versa). (It's down right now, but I believe it's still available.)
The way the USPTO is run is the cause for so much drama. A few weeks ago Slashdot reported that employees at the patent office are overworked and underpaid with unreasonable quotas. It's an open secret that the patent and trademark office has a high turnover rate from being overworked and underappreciated for the role they fulfill for the government and inventors. Some companies and investors take advantage of this and gamble that prior art among other criteria will be overlooked because an examiner simply wants to get the job done, get to the next application and collect his paycheck.