Appeals Court Affirms Old Polaroid Patent Invalid

mpicpp (3454017) writes with news of a notoriously abused (basically "method of displaying images on a machine") software patent being declared invalid. From the article: The ruling from last week is one of the first to apply new Supreme Court guidance about when ideas are too "abstract" to be patented. ... The patents in this case describe a type of "device profile" that allows digital images to be accurately displayed on different devices. US Patent No. 6,128,415 was originally filed by Polaroid in 1996. After a series of transfers, in 2012 the patent was sold to Digitech Image Technologies, a branch of Acacia Research Corporation, the largest publicly traded patent assertion company. ... In the opinion, a three-judge panel found that the device profile described in the patent is a "collection of intangible color and spatial information," not a machine or manufactured object. "Data in its ethereal, non-physical form is simply information that does not fall under any of the categories of eligible subject matter under section 101," wrote Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna on behalf of the panel.

Comments

Hardly a shocker

[SlaveToTheGrind]

The district court held the patent invalid under the old standard that was, in practice, more generous toward software algorithm patents. Then the Supreme Court decided CLS Bank, making software algorithm patents more difficult to obtain/keep. Under those circumstances, it would have been newsworthy if the Federal Circuit hadn't affirmed in this case.

Re:KODACHROME PATENT STILL VALID!!

[Bob_Who]

Amen, Brother.

Its amazing how being at a certain age and place and social consciousness that a common experience and thinking is shared. We all knew that things would always change in time, but its strange to look back and see how that all played out in the aftermath... In some ways, we didn't have a clue, but in terms of the results that we just KNEW would result from three decades of "trickle down" economics and other forms of short sighted policy enacted by people are no longer alive: Here we are! Right where we knew we would be. I was born in Rochester, New York - home of Kodak, but I never thought I or Paul Simon would outlive that company's prosperity or exemplary ethics. It certainly could have survived in all of its glory if it had continued to care about people more then about shareholder profits, plain and simple. That's how George Eastman would have wanted it.

It was at that moment that America died for me. Things would never get better than those two seconds. It was all down hill from there.

Americas not dead yet, my friend, but I do understand exactly how you are feeling about all of the lost ground. We remember our losses more profoundly then our gains. Its human nature, I guess, just like the rest of the experience.

Re:KODACHROME PATENT STILL VALID!!

[PopeRatzo]

Some of us look and see that the words of our founders "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury.

Except, no "founder" ever said that.

Unless you consider Ronald Reagan one of the founders, which considering your sentiment, is quite possible. Either people have the right to consent to their government or they don't. Whether or not there are social programs does not change that. What that quote (from the 1950's) is really saying is, "We'd be better off if people who disagree with me weren't allowed to vote".