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Bank of America Tops IBM, Payments Firms With Most Blockchain Patents (bloomberg.com)
Bank of America may not be willing to help customers invest in Bitcoin, but that doesn't mean it isn't plowing into the technology underlying the cryptocurrency. From a report: The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender has applied for or received at least 43 patents for blockchain, the ledger technology used for verifying and recording transactions that's at the heart of virtual currencies. It is the largest number among major banks and technology companies, according to a study by EnvisionIP, a New York-based law firm that specializes in analyses of intellectual property. "Based on what's publicly out there, the technology sector hasn't embraced blockchain as much as the financial-services industry," Maulin Shah, managing attorney for EnvisionIP, said in an interview. International Business Machines Corp., which has targeted blockchain and artificial intelligence for future growth, tied with Mastercard Inc. for second on the list, with 27 each.
They didn't invent this tech yet they're patenting the shit out of it.
The people that work at the USPTO need to be shot.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
But BOFA isn't patenting this to use, it's to stop YOU from using it.
With our fun new "first to file" patent system, not only can corporations beat almost any inventor to locking up an idea, we've nearly completely killed open science! And while many historians consider "first to file" to be a big part of the growth of American innovation and business in the previous centuries, we needed to reprioritize to help usher in our glorious new Gilded Age. Remember children, the government is just taking care of the most important citizens! So rejoice in your serfdom, and pick up that can...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
This should be marked misleading, not interesting. The change from first-to-invent to first-to-file was minor: it did away with opposition proceedings, where two inventors file for applications on the same invention and the patent office has a mini-trial to determine which one actually invented it first. They cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and out of a half million patent applications a year, there were on average twenty oppositions. Not twenty thousand. Twenty.
And it has nothing to do with corporations vs. inventors. Even in the first-to-invent days, most inventors worked for corporations, so it was still corporations filing on applications.
In short, none of what you said has any basis in reality, except for your wiki link. So, good job there.
So, who are you trolling for ?
In the past any inventor who could produce documentation proving they invented something could gain priority over one filed by some who learned of the invention and had their legal team rush out a patent. Under "first to file" open science is basically dead, as any group collaborating openly online is at perpetual risk of having their work patented by anyone who learns of it and files before they can.
This has massively stifled online collaboration, as important inventions made in private now result in the inventor taking out a loan and going dark for 5-7 years while they wait for the USPTO to get around to their application.
It has also emboldened corporations to accelerate preexisting efforts to file as many patents as possible on anything promising.
The commons, like most public resources, are being privatized, and patents are a major drag on nearly every aspect of innovation.