US Dir. of Citizen Participation Patents the News

Posted by timothy on Saturday January 30, 2010 @02:12PM from the overlay-of-obvious dept.

theodp writes "Ex-Googler and now White House Director of Citizen Participation Katie Stanton is charged with promoting open public dialogues. Last Thursday, Stanton and Google snagged a patent on displaying financial news. Google explains that Stanton's invention — Interactive Financial Charting and Related News Correlation — will 'facilitate and encourage the user's use and understanding of financial information,' which does jibe nicely with Stanton's appointment to Obama's New Media Team. Too bad it'll be encumbered by a Google patent until 2027."

1 of 66 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Google is not a patent troll by marquinhocb · 2010-01-30 15:35 · Score: 3, Interesting

Have you ever seen Google sue offensively? Cuz I haven't. It seems Google uses their patents for defensive cases (i.e. so someone else can't sue them), not as a patent troll. At least, that's been the rule so far.