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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."

2 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So don't worry about it by rainmouse · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thanks. Not wanting to be an ungrateful ass or anything, but it would have helped if you had stated the following information pertained to the UK first. .

    It's very typically the other way around. TFA for example assumes you are in the USA without ever even mentioning it and therefore ignores things such as the European Patent Convention which "excludes 'programs for computers' from patentability (Art. 52(2)) to the extent that a patent application relates to a computer program"

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent

  2. Re:So don't worry about it by yeshuawatso · · Score: 3, Informative

    This won't work in America due to piercing of the corporate vail. Moving your assets to a holder won't protect them, and moving debt to subsidiaries won't work either, as you're committing fraud. This is the EXACT same thing Author Anderson helped Enron with. Enron moved their debt and losses to special purpose entities (SPE) to boost the parent companies earnings and balance sheets. As a result of such shenanigans, corporations got stuck with complying with the million dollar a year law called Sarbanes-Oxley. Granted most of the law applies to publicly traded companies, but if you're running games like this you're already publicly traded, or looking at an IPO, either way, you're going to run into SO pretty quick.