Google Accused of Trying To Patent Public Domain Technology (bleepingcomputer.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A Polish academic is accusing Google of trying to patent technology he invented and that he purposely released into the public domain so companies like Google couldn't trap it inside restrictive licenses. The technology's name is Asymmetric Numeral Systems (ANS), a family of entropy coding methods that Polish assistant professor Jarosaw (Jarek) Duda developed in the early 2000s, and which is now hot tech at companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook, mostly because it can improve data compression from 3 to 30 times. Duda says that Google is now trying to register a patent that includes most of the ANS basic principles. Ironically, most of the technology described in the patent, Duda said he explained to Google engineers in a Google Groups discussion from 2014. The researcher already filed a complaint, to which WIPO ISA responded by calling out Google for not coming up with "an inventive contribution over the prior art, because it is no more than a straightforward application of known coding algorithms." A Google spokesperson refused to comment, and the mystery remains surrounding Google's decision to patent something that's in the public domain since 2014.

Comments

What's the problem?

[youngone]

That's exactly what patents are for: To ensure huge corporations like Google keep tight hold on any new (or not so new) technologies.
It almost makes no difference whether Prof Duda can prove he invented this, if Google have a mind to they have the money to keep any case he might bring in court for as long as they like.br. The system is set up that way.

Re:What's the problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

He's not suing Google. He's bringing the prior art to the attention of WIPO.

Re:Has Google sued anyone for patent infringement?

[JesseMcDonald]

If Google is trying to get a patent for an already-existing invention, then it's far more likely they applied for it just in case the USPTO was stupid enough to grant it.

If they did that knowingly they would be committing fraud by claiming to be the inventor. If the point was merely to prevent someone else from getting a patent they could just ensure that the technique is clearly documented, with proper attribution, and published in a public prior-art database, which would also help anyone wanting to use it.