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Oprah Sued For Infringing "Touch and Feel" Patent
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Oprah Winfrey, or to be more precise, Oprah's Book Club, is being sued by the inventor/patent attorney Scott C. Harris for infringing upon his patent for 'Enhancing Touch and Feel on the Internet.' So Oprah's Book Club is now one of many people and entities being sued over this patent because they allow people to view part, but not all, of a book online before purchasing it. Mr. Harris also sued Google Books for infringing upon this patent. He actually was fired from his position as partner at Fish & Richardson for that, because Google is a client of that law firm and they had conflict of interest rules to uphold." It would be entertaining to see Oprah give very wide and mainstream publicity to the abuses enabled by our current patent system.
Update: 01/07 22:03 GMT by KD : The blog author Joe Mullin wrote to point out that the lawsuit was not filed by the inventor, Scott C. Harris, but rather by the shell company Illinois Computer Research, which seems to exist for the purpose of filing lawsuits based on this particular patent.
Update: 01/07 22:03 GMT by KD : The blog author Joe Mullin wrote to point out that the lawsuit was not filed by the inventor, Scott C. Harris, but rather by the shell company Illinois Computer Research, which seems to exist for the purpose of filing lawsuits based on this particular patent.
It would be entertaining to see Oprah give very wide and mainstream publicity to the abuses enabled by our current patent system.
It's more likely she'd just give him a car.
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
Did anyone else read that as : "It would be entertaining to see Oprah get very wide" ?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Dr. Phil! Touch me! Feel me!
Oh, it's not that kind of lawsuit? Yawn.
John
I don't see fixing the current patent system as requiring getting a different party in power, though that might be a way to fix that.
If tens of thousands of Opraholics call, write and descend on Capitol Hill, that might scare the legislature sh!tless to fix the patent trolling system.
Well of course not, I mean the choice in candidates was black and white. :D
-1, Gay
So what you're really saying is that Oprah is Trogdor in disguise?
OPRAH! Burninating the countryside, Burninating the patent trolls. Burninating all the peoples. And their thatched-roof COTTAGES!
Thatched-roof COTTAGES!
+1 Colorful
Scott C. Harris looked out his window. It was dark, he saw the change in the air... the streets, which were once full of people going about their daily lives, were now full of protesting people wanting to tare down his doors. The system of product protection which he had faught so hard to uphold, was in tatters. Thousands who had been sued by the actions resulting in his hard work were now at his....
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Isn't she that fat black American with a women's talk show?
With the Law of Attraction, Oprah and anyone else who is willing to blindly fork out their money is GOD*
This post was made in complete sincere seriousity; as such any attempts to derive humour are doomed to instant failure.
Just look at paris hilton! What did the 'infamous' sex tape do to her? Shot her popularity through the roof!
I really hope we don't end up with a similar video featuring Oprah.
There is not much Oprah in my world, fat or thin.
Trust me, there's more of her in your world than there was 6 months ago.
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
It will be called, "A Day at the Oprah".
riding round the world on an old motorcycle