Microsoft has lost a patent infringement suit in California in a case brought by Guatemalan inventor Carlos Amado, who has obtained $9 million USD (not nearly as much as the $500 million USD that he had asked for). The claim deals with U.S Patent 5,701,400, a patent that protects a Read more…
I go away for a few days and when I come back I find that everything has been turned on its head. IBM and SUN are the bad guys, they are exploiting open source projects and using them as cheap subcontractors of American multinationals, according to Jesus Villasante, the head Read more…
This is a lengthy and amazingly well-informed debate about software patents in Europe from Lessig’s blog. Seeing who the participants are, this should come as no surprise. It is nice to see some of the best proponents of software patents (I refuse to use the euphemism in vogue) argue their Read more…
This article in the Washington Post tells us about the plans to reform the U.S. patent system, because it is now felt that the system is suffering from too many patents awarded, and too few are not being awarded. There are those who want Europe to go the way of Read more…
(NY Times link, remember to use Bugmenot). IBM is opening up its intellectual property. Yes, this is similar to the much publicised legally binding promise of non-enforcement issued last January, but it goes further, and it provides a serious philosophical shift about how companies should use their intellectual property. IBM Read more…
This is a dreadful article by yet another software patent lawyer in Linux Insider. It praises software patents American style, without shame, just like that, as if the system in the U.S. was not broken! Only a software patent lawyer can state such idiocy and claim that the system in Read more…
(Warning: the article is entitled “Patently absurd”, I had never seen that title before!) This is an article by John Naughton about software patents (yes, I know I promised that I would not write about software patents again, but I can’t stop myself). Although the article is an adequate introduction Read more…
I promise that this is the last software patent article for a while. The Guardian has a pretty decent article describing the state of affairs with the approval of the directive-that-shall-not-be-named. It is quite interesting to see that there is something happening that produces enough interest to allow this issue Read more…
Take a look at Amazon’s US patent 6865546. This is a patent for a system that determines a buyer’s age according to previous buying records. The patent states that: One embodiment of the present invention is a system and method of determining the age of an item recipient, such as Read more…
Today, thousands of activists and open source developers in Europe must be shouting “Damn you all to hell”. The European Council has decided to adopt the proposed text of the software patents directive (pardon me, the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive). The procedure seems to have been dodgy to say the Read more…