Microsoft Lays Claim To Patent On 'Fans'

theodp writes "A USPTO filing made public Thursday reveals that Microsoft is seeking a patent for something it calls 'One-Way Public Relationships' in social networks and other online properties, lawyer-speak for what's more commonly known as being a 'fan' of something online. It's unclear whether it's a goof on Apple, but Microsoft curiously used the example of a U2 fan named Steve to explain its 'invention' to the USPTO. Purported patent reformer Microsoft, which has called for the US to change from a first-to-invent patent system to a first-to-file system, filed the patent application in July 2009. Microsoft is a partner with and investor in Facebook, which first established its fan pages back in November 2007."

Comments

One-way-public relationships?

[Anonymous Coward]

I call prior art when I had a crush on this girl who blew me off.

Re:One-way-public relationships?

[ae1294]

I call prior art when I had a crush on this girl who blew me off.

no no you are thinking about the 'stalker patent'.

Re:One-way-public relationships?

[davester666]

That was NOT a girl.

"Like"

[MrEricSir]

Steve Ballmer and 2 other people like this.

Re:"Like"

[masterwit]

Personally I just want the "Hate" button. So I can show my hatred for all the stupidity on the web without having to comment. Would save us all a little bit of stress/work eh?

If This Gets Rejected...

[Scarletdown]

If this patent gets rejected, will Microsoft and the Patent Office find themselves on each other's Freaks list?

Not a fan

[Andy Smith]

I really, really, really, from the bottom of my heart, with a stomach-churning sickness and bile rising in my throat, hate this trend of trivial and obvious technology patents. They all boil down to the same thing: "We saw someone else doing this, and we think it's a good idea, so we want to be the only people that are allowed to do it from now on."

Whew

[rossdee]

I was getting worried they were patenting a rotating device used to blow air to cool things. Essential for modern computers...
(BTW most air conditioners use fans too.

Some obvious prior art

[dkleinsc]

Right here.

I claim Prior Art from Deep Purple

[WillAffleckUW]

As I recall, I was a member of their online Fan Club, and the software for that was copyright.

We Live in the World of Unfettered Rent Seekers

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking

Rent seeking generally implies the extraction of uncompensated value from others without making any contribution to productivity, such as by gaining control of land and other pre-existing natural resources, or by imposing burdensome regulations or other government decisions that may affect consumers or businesses.

http://www.friesian.com/rent.htm

Because rents are the easiest and most secure kind of income, it is natural for people to want income from rents rather than principally from profits or wages, and to want rents that involve the least risk and labor as enterprises. This motive is called "rent-seeking," and there is nothing wrong with it. Indeed, those who collect rents in an economy serve the valuable function of seeking to maintain and preserve capital assets [1]. It becomes wrong when rent-seeking means trying to collect rents off of capital that is not the rightful possession of the rent-seeker. This can be legally accomplished through the means that secure the rights of property in the first place: politics and the law. Through political influence people can be given ownership of things that are not their property, or should not be anyone's property. The theory of rent-seeking began with the economist Gordon Tullock.

"Theft" of intellectual property is in some situations, the proper, sane and moral response to systematised and institutional abuse of the limited monopoly granted to ideas and expressions for the original intent of fostering creativity and innovation. Once "intellectual property" becomes for intents and purposes indistinguishable from real estate, it represents a form of abusive coercion which misplaces rent-seeking behaviour as the objective of granting patent and copyright - not the incidental incentive for works of interest in common.

Re:We Live in the World of Unfettered Rent Seekers

[Sarten-X]

pre-existing... resources

By the time a particular design is patented, it's undergone a lot of refinement from a simple idea. That investment of time and labor is significant, usually taking several years and/or tens of thousands of dollars. It certainly constitutes a "contribution to productivity". The patent holders seek repayment for their work (like wages), rather than "rent", and indeed some don't even seek monetary returns at all (as with Google's MapReduce patent). To take your real estate analogy to its logical conclusion, you're assuming that all buildings and landscaping are magically preexisting, and there's no investment in the property. In reality, real estate is sold based on its preexisting natural condition and also whatever improvements have been made. A $100,000-dollar improvement to a home may only raise the value by $75,000. Is it wrong or abusive that those who want to stay in such a building short-term might pay to do so? Is it wrong that by appealing to many people who all want use of the building, a landlord may recoup their investment?

Intellectual property has a significant intellectual component. Nullifying the chance for such an investment to be returned is abusive.

Re:We Live in the World of Unfettered Rent Seekers

[ushering05401]

First, I don't believe you are actually addressing the point made above. 'Rent' is a commentary on the intersection of interest with the origin/dynamic of capital acquisition/maintenance. A more software relevant example would be in the question of what qualifies as rent now that software is making the final transition to Public Good status.

As far as I can tell, m00t has an idea that rent is paid by originality - see the 4chan cancer problem. Linus feels that rent is paid by people that choose to find their own interest in his company. Taco apparently thinks rent is paid by not abusing his board too heavily. All of these forms of rent have other facets that result in income - the evolution of content through distributed action, large scale data sets demonstrating patterns of attraction, the reputation/rank/tradition that establishes advertising desirability.

On the IP side of things a more accurate translation to real estate terms would be that your $100,000 home improvement only costs that much because of collusion between the builder, the material suppliers, and the governing authorities. IMHO the IP players are price fixing in an attempt to keep their industry from collapsing into Public Good status. I can prove this by the fact that the cost to infringe upon a lot of IP is sitting down in front of your computer and programming something in an obvious way, then finding out via a lawyer that you have violated IP rights. With a cost of infringement that low the IP is demonstrating its invalid nature.

Until I really got involved in Linux I was more tolerant of tech IP. When your base OS is only a suggestion of packages that work well together, and it is your job to customize the computer, you end up realizing just how many patents you are violating with nothing more that custom configuration of existing libraries and basic knowledge common to the field.

Long story short, Rent becomes a metaphysical concept where we are going. There isn't much to do about it, people want to eat and more are learning to grow their own every day. Did that even address the point? Not sure. Hope so.

Patent idea for microsoft

[xednieht]

"'One-Way Public Relationships' in social networks and other online properties, lawyer-speak for what's more commonly known as being a 'fan' "

Microsoft should patent assholes too, layman-speak for what's more commonly known as being a lawyer.

Enough is enough already: abolish the USPTO

Speaking of rent...

[lavamind]

Rent Is Too Damn High!

Patenting Fans?

[Jahava]

Patenting fans? Not cool, Microsoft... not cool.

Re:It's as if...

[ushering05401]

The system gets the joke. They also have to live with the consequences of change. At this point any IP changes will make a global impact, and must be considered both as Domestic and Foreign Policy.

I hate it too. Find thanks in the fact that we are not waking up to this steaming pile on our plate each morning. Someone is, though.

Re:America

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

"In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy."
--David Korten

Directed Graph... With Humans!

[Bob9113]

'One-Way Public Relationships' in social networks and other online properties, lawyer-speak for what's more commonly known as being a 'fan' of something online.

This is also lawyer-speak for what is more technically known as a directed graph.

I thought the patent system was broken for allowing any half-wit to staple "... on the Internet!" onto an existing idea and be granted a patent. Now they're giving patents for "A directed graph... with humans!" The user interface, storage, and processing of directed graphs are a significant part of computer science history, and trace their heritage to before the Unix epoch. There is no technical invention here, nor by Facebook in 2007. You should as easily be allowed to patent "1 + 1 = 2... with humans!" and go sue anyone who is married for infringement.