Its bad enough my original submission of this (5 hours before it was finally posted on Wed. was rejected. Now they post a friggin dupe? I give up on this site, the editors are morons.
I submitted this story at noon and it was rejected. What is the deal with Slashdot, it doesn't want to run a story under the mainstream media picks it up?
Just don't forget to buy a decent power supply unit (you should be prepared to spend at least $45). Nothing quite like down investing in a quality CPU/Mobo/RAM combination to have the $15 PSU blow up after 45 minutes--not that I would have made such a stupid mistake of course...no, no, never.
Please give us some reasons as to why this patent is not as broad as it seems
The scope of a patent is determined by its claims only. The rest of the patent (abstract, written description and drawings) are to explain how to practice the invention, to show that the applicant actually posessed the invention, and for a few other reasons. In this case, the claims are directed to causing some specific actions to occur when a button is held for a particular period. look at the secction entitled claims.
If you take the time to read the patent claims, you would see that the patent coverage is nowhere near as broad as the post makes it sound. I really wish the editors would stop posting patent stories to the front page, because they are almost always misleading, if not clearly wrong. At the very least, I think/.ers need a lesson in patent law. As a patent lawyer myself, I'd be willing to answer a few questions to hopefully put an end to the patent ignorance I see here day after day.
Instead of college, I'd suggest joining the military. They will beat that self-centered I-want-someone-else-to-pay-for-my-education attitude out of you, and you can apply for benefits via the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) and Army/Navy College Fund (ACF) after you serve.
This latest PR disaster only provides further reason for me to defect to H&R TaxCut. I bought TurboTax last year along with the "free" state filing package with mail in rebate. Unfortunately, I didn't discovery the fine print that the mail-in rebate had to be submitted within 30 days of purchase and since I bought it in January and didn't open it until April...I got screwed. When I complained that they should have put that fine print on the box, I got a blow off letter.
Although they apparently changed their rebate approach this year, I still refuse to do business with these cheats for whom managing customer satisfaction takes a backseat to dreaming up annoying policies.
IMAL but let me part from my traditional role and offer some free advice.
First of all, getting a patent is expensive. Its as simple as that. The government doesn't give away monopolies easily, that's why most people pay us patent lawyers to handle it. If you can't afford the $5-$10k it will cost to file a patent application, you should probably reevaluate the need for it.
Second, trying to find a cheap patent lawyer in the bay area is a waste of time. The PTO has a list of all registered patent attorneys and agents; I suggest you use that to locate a lawyer in the mid-west or a small town where the market rates for lawyers are less than $200-$300/hr for a junior attorney. Most patent work does not require face to face meetings so there should not be a problem using an attorney in another city or state.
Finally, as one of the posters pointed out, you can file a provisional application for a nominal fee (under $100), which (if the description is complete enough), will act as a placeholder for 12 months to allow you to determine if the cost is worth proceeding with a formal application and/or to find someone else to foot the bill for a formal application.
Good luck.
Incidentally, I also agree that lots of incorrect information is floating around in this thread, making me think it is about time for a/. interview with a patent lawyer to correct lots of misimpretions about the patent system that seem to be pervasive among/.ers.
Once again/.ers have completely misunderstand our current legal regime.
The criminal justice system described in minority report is nothing like our current system and has no relevance to the Patriot Act or the war against terrorism.
With the exception of a few horrendous exceptions (such as Japanese internment), no one has been detained, arrested, or charged by our government wihout reasonable cause to believe that they had committed a crime or intended to commit a crime and had taken at least a prepatory step toward commiting that crime.
Yes, we do criminalize conspiracies in the United States. But this means that it is illegal to agree with someone to commit a crime. In other words, the illegal act is the agreement itself, not some unperformed future act.
The problem with your comment is in the assumption that the only thing being sold is a username and password. Obviously the buyer thought they were buying something a little more substantive.
Actually, U.S. businesses are contrained by other countries foreign laws. Why do you think U.S. mergers are analyzed by the European Commission for potential violations of European antitrust laws? This is the price companies pay for wanting to sell their wares in markets throughout the world. Don't bet on Elcomsoft's argument winning.
Incidentally I thought this was a criminal case--not that it matters.
I have serious doubts there were 1.4 million infringing downloads of files that are on average 6MB in 48 hours. In fact, I doubt if all Napser users combined have downloaded 1.4 million files since the service's inception. The 1.4 million must be the number of metallica mp3 files they saw indexed during that period. Maybe Lars needs to hire better advisers.
Slashdot Mirror
Its bad enough my original submission of this (5 hours before it was finally posted on Wed. was rejected. Now they post a friggin dupe? I give up on this site, the editors are morons.
I submitted this story at noon and it was rejected. What is the deal with Slashdot, it doesn't want to run a story under the mainstream media picks it up?
Netzero still offers its "free" dialup service-- its just limited to 10 HRS / month. Netzero free
A 50% contingency is not that unusual for a patent case. They are resource intensive and thus very expensive to litigate.
Just don't forget to buy a decent power supply unit (you should be prepared to spend at least $45). Nothing quite like down investing in a quality CPU/Mobo/RAM combination to have the $15 PSU blow up after 45 minutes--not that I would have made such a stupid mistake of course...no, no, never.
The scope of a patent is determined by its claims only. The rest of the patent (abstract, written description and drawings) are to explain how to practice the invention, to show that the applicant actually posessed the invention, and for a few other reasons. In this case, the claims are directed to causing some specific actions to occur when a button is held for a particular period. look at the secction entitled claims
If you take the time to read the patent claims, you would see that the patent coverage is nowhere near as broad as the post makes it sound. I really wish the editors would stop posting patent stories to the front page, because they are almost always misleading, if not clearly wrong. At the very least, I think /.ers need a lesson in patent law. As a patent lawyer myself, I'd be willing to answer a few questions to hopefully put an end to the patent ignorance I see here day after day.
Seriously, a good farking embiggens a webserver's ego. It is a perfectly cromulent word.
3F13
Instead of college, I'd suggest joining the military. They will beat that self-centered I-want-someone-else-to-pay-for-my-education attitude out of you, and you can apply for benefits via the Montgomery GI Bill (MGIB) and Army/Navy College Fund (ACF) after you serve.
This latest PR disaster only provides further reason for me to defect to H&R TaxCut. I bought TurboTax last year along with the "free" state filing package with mail in rebate. Unfortunately, I didn't discovery the fine print that the mail-in rebate had to be submitted within 30 days of purchase and since I bought it in January and didn't open it until April...I got screwed. When I complained that they should have put that fine print on the box, I got a blow off letter.
Although they apparently changed their rebate approach this year, I still refuse to do business with these cheats for whom managing customer satisfaction takes a backseat to dreaming up annoying policies.
Wrong, read the subpoena, it is limited to a definite period of time.
Only if they didn't want to enforce their rights in the US.
That's pretty cynical.
IMAL but let me part from my traditional role and offer some free advice.
/. interview with a patent lawyer to correct lots of misimpretions about the patent system that seem to be pervasive among /.ers.
First of all, getting a patent is expensive. Its as simple as that. The government doesn't give away monopolies easily, that's why most people pay us patent lawyers to handle it. If you can't afford the $5-$10k it will cost to file a patent application, you should probably reevaluate the need for it.
Second, trying to find a cheap patent lawyer in the bay area is a waste of time. The PTO has a list of all registered patent attorneys and agents; I suggest you use that to locate a lawyer in the mid-west or a small town where the market rates for lawyers are less than $200-$300/hr for a junior attorney. Most patent work does not require face to face meetings so there should not be a problem using an attorney in another city or state.
Finally, as one of the posters pointed out, you can file a provisional application for a nominal fee (under $100), which (if the description is complete enough), will act as a placeholder for 12 months to allow you to determine if the cost is worth proceeding with a formal application and/or to find someone else to foot the bill for a formal application.
Good luck.
Incidentally, I also agree that lots of incorrect information is floating around in this thread, making me think it is about time for a
Once again /.ers have completely misunderstand our current legal regime.
The criminal justice system described in minority report is nothing like our current system and has no relevance to the Patriot Act or the war against terrorism.
With the exception of a few horrendous exceptions (such as Japanese internment), no one has been detained, arrested, or charged by our government wihout reasonable cause to believe that they had committed a crime or intended to commit a crime and had taken at least a prepatory step toward commiting that crime.
Yes, we do criminalize conspiracies in the United States. But this means that it is illegal to agree with someone to commit a crime. In other words, the illegal act is the agreement itself, not some unperformed future act.
The problem with your comment is in the assumption that the only thing being sold is a username and password. Obviously the buyer thought they were buying something a little more substantive.
Actually, U.S. businesses are contrained by other countries foreign laws. Why do you think U.S. mergers are analyzed by the European Commission for potential violations of European antitrust laws? This is the price companies pay for wanting to sell their wares in markets throughout the world. Don't bet on Elcomsoft's argument winning.
Incidentally I thought this was a criminal case--not that it matters.
I have serious doubts there were 1.4 million infringing downloads of files that are on average 6MB in 48 hours. In fact, I doubt if all Napser users combined have downloaded 1.4 million files since the service's inception. The 1.4 million must be the number of metallica mp3 files they saw indexed during that period. Maybe Lars needs to hire better advisers.