Inventor Says Google Is Patenting His Public Domain Work (arstechnica.com)

Rob Riggs writes: Jarek Duda, the inventor of a compression technique called asymmetric numeral systems (ANS), dedicated the invention to the public domain. Since 2014, Facebook, Apple, and Google have all created software based on his breakthrough. Google is now trying to patent a video encoding scheme using the compression technique. The inventor is fighting Google in the European courts and has won a preliminary ruling. The fight's not over and Google is also seeking a patent with the USPTO. A Google spokesperson says Duda came up with a theoretical concept that isn't directly patentable, "while Google's lawyers are seeking to patent a specific application of that theory that reflects additional work by Google's engineers," reports Ars Technica. "But Duda says he suggested the exact technique Google is trying to patent in a 2014 email exchange with Google engineers."

Comments

Re:The patent system is broken

[StormReaver]

[If] it really is novel and nothing like it has been patented before it will be granted.

If you work for a large company, use the phrase, "with a computer," and can pay the application fees, it will be granted.

Re: It's called Prior Art

[darkain]

"with a computer"

Re:FIRST TO FILE

[Anubis IV]

Prior art can only invalidate a patent if said prior art was itself patented.

That’s patently (pun intended) false. Prior art, patented or not, can be used to invalidate a patent. You can’t patent an existing invention, regardless of if you’re the first to file. If nothing else, that should be patently obvious (pun oh-so-intended) on account of the filing’s failure to pass the “non-obvious” test. If someone else has already invented it, the idea is obvious at that point, particularly so if the inventor verifiably disclosed it to you prior to your filing.