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GraphOn Patents Remote Windows Apps Over X

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the amazingly-lame-patents dept.

LocalLinuxLobbyist wrote in to point us to this clever patent that apparently says GraphOn owns what VNC has done forever: the displaying and using of Windows apps over X. Oh, don't forget that this is the same GraphOn that is making Linux the Official OS of China.

6 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. One problem .... by taniwha · · Score: 5
    It seems that to get a bogus patent nullified you have to go to court ......

    I'd like to see

    • a division of the patent office that does post-facto reviews of patents as follow ups from public comment (so we can all email someone and have it actually have some effect) - maybe just a place where you can mail prior-art examples to
    • the ability for judges to require legal costs to be paid by someone who has such a bogus patent and then sues someone when obvious prior art is available - esp. if the defendant points it out at the very beginning of precedings - this might discourage people knuckling under just to save the legal bills (esp. important for us low paid open source people)
  2. Here's the patent. by curtisg · · Score: 5
    This appears to be the patent in question:

    http://www.patents.ibm.com/detai ls?pn=US05831609__
  3. How may I prior art thee, let me count the ways... by Greyfox · · Score: 5
    Lets see... Hasn't Cygnus been doing this since the 1980's?

    I was doing windows apps remotely using wine 5 years ago.

    vmware seems to do something like this too.

    Someone needs to march down to the Patent Office and take away those fuckers' crack pipes.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  4. Peer review for patents by mOdQuArK! · · Score: 5

    I mentioned this in a previous thread, but now I get a default score of 2 - so I'll mention it again and hope I get some more comments :)

    There really ought to be a formalized "peer review" system for patents. It doesn't necessarily have to model the scientific review process (although that's probably a place to start). Preferably, you should be able to take government out of the loop except for maybe the enforcement of the resultant patents.

    Anything that can pass the /. "laugh" or "scorn" test (using /. as a typical set of "peers" for software) would probably qualify as innovative - and anything that got a majority "COOL!" reaction would probably be REALLY innovative to the jaded eyes on this forum...

  5. Contact your senator by Joe_NoOne · · Score: 5

    I recently heard from my senator about patent issues -- they are revising the patent laws, and from what little I've read it's being rushed through. It's HR 1907 and S.1798. Find out and get involved

    1. Re:Contact your senator by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 5

      S. 1798 contains an important clause requiring that the GAO do a study on the 'quality' of patents on business models. This is very important to slashdotters because a large fraction of these business model patents are being generated by internet startups. There was an article on slashdot about one of these recently.

      It would be a very good thing if a similar study be done on software patents. Writing your congressman would be a good idea.