Slashdot Mirror
Algorithmic Patenting
An anonymous reader writes: Venturebeat reports on companies using software to "create" patents. They say a company called Cloem will use the software to "linguistically manipulate a seed set of a client's patent claims by, for example, substituting in synonyms or reordering steps in a process, thereby generating tens of thousands of potentially patentable inventions." The article says, "There is reason to believe that at least some of its computer-conceived inventions could be patentable and, indeed, patents have already been granted on inventions designed wholly or in part by software."
anyone needed another proof that the patent system is FUBAR.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It looks like a very effective denial of service attack, to me. No law school is shitty enough to puke out patent examiners that cost less per hour than some glorified Markov chain, so barring some sort of rate limiting, with teeth, you should be able to shove a lot of utter shit through by sheer brute force.
Even better, if the patent examiners don't just crack under the strain, then they do the job of distinguishing vaguely worthwhile patents from algorithmic word salad for you!
Alright sir, I see you are here to defend patent XJ82934952H28354. Why isn't the inventor here? :)
> It is judge, I have it running on my smartphone.
Really? Let's see, name Random Global Search And Replace Thesaurus Based Script Bot For Patents. That's a rather long name for a person, as well as a rather odd one. What were your parents named Mr Patents?
> I'm sorry judge, but it doesn't have patents, it's a piece of software.
Software? So you mean it's one of those AI thingies? A sentient machine like C3PO? Able think, imagine, and create new ideas?
>Ummm... Not as such. It just changes words with other synonyms and sometimes reorders the steps in a sequence of steps.
So let me get this straight. You patented someone elses work, after making minor modifications to it with something that has no more creativity or understanding than throwing random words into a jumble and expect to invent this despite patent laws requirement for it to be something that an expert in the field would not find obvious and yet "running an app" is something that anyone can do, even my two year old daughter that can't read, and absolutely in no way reaches that simple, though often argued over, benchmark?
>I, uh, wouldn't put it that way your honor...
Well I did. Patent revoked. In fact, all "patents" submitted that are creations of that stupid script are hereby revoked, and don't try it again or I'm going to throw the book at you for wasting everyones time you stupid little troll!
.
(Ok, I'd expect everything after the word "revoked" would just be in the judges head, but the thought counts, right?)