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Ridiculous Software Patents: a Developer's Nemesis

Posted by samzenpus on from the there-are-no-new-ideas dept.

StormDriver writes "Have you ever thought about patenting a pop up note, an online poll, a leaderboard in an online game, or a system where you open apps by clicking icons? I have some bad news for you – it's impossible. Not because the claim is stupid, it's just that all of those things are already patented. And it's all fun and factoids, until one day you find yourself in the role of a software start-up."

1 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Devil's advocate... by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 3, Funny

    may not have been so 10 or 20 years ago.

    We've had the internet for over a decade now, and yet "ON TEH INTARWEBS!!1!" is still supposedly a novel and non-obvious way to do things.

    It's like the old adage about how to read fortunes from fortune cookies. Except instead of the usual, you substitute "on the web" to get your patent.