Slashdot Mirror
Google Patents Displaying Athletes On Sports Fields
theodp writes "Just about anyone that's familiar with sports has seen position and depth charts, in which athletes are portrayed on the athletic fields their sport is played on. But that didn't stop Google from asking for — and the USPTO granting — a patent on displaying pictures of athletes on the fields on which their sport is played, or in legal-speak, its Method, System, and Graphical User Interface for Personalized Online Sports Team Charts. 'One aspect of the invention,' explains Google, 'involves a graphical user interface on a computer that includes a graphic of an athletic playing field or a portion thereof, and a plurality of player positions on the athletic field. At least some of the player positions contain thumbnail images selected by a first user. The thumbnail images provide links to corresponding profiles in an online social network.' Six Googlers, including Orkut Buyukkokten, were credited as inventors in the 2007 patent application."
I was wondering for a while why a software tech giant, of all companies, would file patent applications with sport-themed pictures.
Ezekiel 23:20
That should have been "Ambiguous headline", of course.
Ezekiel 23:20
The only way to win is not to play (by their rules).
I'm going to decide on my own which patents merit respect and which don't, and infringe and infringe and infringe....
I am patenting these things called "words" that may be combined to form "sentences" and I expect all of you to be paying me if you are infringing on my patent.
Holy shit man what happened to you, it sounds like someone shit in your Wheaties.
Protip: Do not eat Wheaties after someone shits in them.
Based on this phrase in the title - Personalized Online Sports Team Charts - it sounds like they might be making a move into fantasy sports. This would be a way to see your team, instead of as just a list. Taking on Yahoo Fantasy Sports, perhaps?
The article is wrong.
This is what Google patented:
1. A graphical user interface on a computer having one or more processors and memory storing one or more programs that when executed by the one or more processors generate the graphical user interface on a display device of the computer, the graphical user interface comprising: a graphic of an athletic playing field or a portion thereof, and a plurality of player positions on the athletic playing field, wherein at least some of the player positions have superimposed thereon thumbnail images selected by a first user, and wherein the thumbnail images provide links which, when selected by a user, provide access to corresponding profiles in an online social network, and wherein the athletic playing field graphic and the plurality of player positions containing thumbnail images selected by the first user are viewable by a second user who accesses a page corresponding to the first user, and wherein the first user and second user are both members of a same online social network.
In other words it's images of athletes linked in a particular way to via a social network.
The pictures will contain links, which means it's ON A COMPUTER - which as we all know makes it inherently patentable.
On mlb.com.
Yankees
St Louis Cardinals
Dodgers
etc.
Of course, Google can say that the patent was filed in 2007. But this is one of the problems with these patents. What they're claiming is obvious, but by the time the patent is granted, everyone has to scramble to prove that prior art existed many years ago, which can be very inconvenient. And of course, that's one of the things the patent hoarding companies are banking on.
What we desperately need is some new group that monitors the patent orifice (I hesitate to call it an office considering what they have been putting out recently) like the Electronic Freedom Foundation does for Internet rights. It would be tasked with taking the USPTO to court to present "overlooked" prior art and otherwise invalidate such ridiculous patents before they become part of a patent troll's arsenal. I would also suggest a hefty fine be imposed against the personal assets of the patent examiner that approved it, this is needed to supply an incentive for other patent examiners to actually do their homework before rubber stamping corporate patents that should never exist.
It is just some social-connected trash that will never be used by anyone anyway.
You can still make your fantasy football games or whatever else.
Still, fuck you Google even then.
They are becoming the next Microsoft, while Microsoft become the next... uh... grave filler? They'll kill themselves sooner or later at the rate they are going.
"Hey, let's shaft our major business users and focus on morons that only buy cheap worthless apps and pictures to use in said apps, yeeaaaah, best idea ever." -Steve Ballmer, on... last week or something, whenever that conference was.
'Hardware and Services' Microsoft will get Steve Ballmer chucked out the company. I can assure you.
pre date this by years. But then you need to view years of shit baseball as well.
Do No Evil on a Compter?
Oh silly me, Google took that one years ago. Sad that they don't abide by it any longer....
Christ, I did this for a startup back in 2000. You've got to be freakin' kidding me. It's not even an invention! It's a way of doing things! Just because it's done on a screen doesn't make it brand new!
I'll admit up front that I haven't read the article but, based just on,
isn't this Madden NFL?
Oh come on, this is comedy gold, mod parent up :)
Pretty sure IBM was doing stuff like this for Wimbledon on the BBC 20 years back...Can anyone else remember what Wimbledon broadcasts looked like? My memory glitches a lot these days...need more parity checking...or less alcohol...
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
the U.S. patent process has become a farce, backed up with a cartoon-like court in eastern Texas.
For what seems like the thousandth time, let's try to get this into our heads:
A patent on a process *involving* something is *not* a patent on that thing.
A patent on a process that involves a wheel is not a patent on a wheel.
A patent on a process that involves two things is not a patent on the number two.
Google is not patenting putting pictures of athletes of playing fields. They are patenting a rather
involved networking application that happens, like many other applications, to incorporate
such an element.
The USPTO is not totally ignorant of patent law. However, many Slashdot submitters and posters are.
This is not an invention, it's simply doing something, there's nothing whatsoever clever about it.
An invention is supposed to be a non-obvious (to those in the relevant profession) way of getting something done. This clearly does not meet that criteria.
Post also applies to most other software patents.
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
I cannot think of any. As such, it's hard for me to condemn Google for filing frivolous patents for self defense.
I feel certain that MS, Apple, and Oracle have been conspiring against Google with frivolous patent lawsuits.
Whoever can patent firing a gun at your own skull first, wins. The trick is to show prior art, so hurry before you opponent gets it done.
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee