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IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties

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Re: IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties

#12
The whole US patent system needs to either be scrapped or rebuilt. The purpose it was originally intended to be used for doesn't make sense in a world where most new technology is just software, and software is incredibly easy to copy and duplicate. Getting a software patent is mostly a matter of sneaking past the people at the USPTO, and making sure you're the first to file. These patent factories could just write code to generate patents all day (maybe start using PyTorch?).

Re: IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties

#14
post #10
post #7

I recall an article a while back about how IBM is so innovative because it had the most patents filed per year on tech or something. I think we can see now that their patenting is less about innovation and more about patent trolling. Quote from the FT article on this below does not seem to show to me that this is the sort of patent that promotes real innovation - "improved navigation using bookmarks" does not seem li…

Are you quoting from the Abstract or something? The claims are what matters.

I'm quoting the news article linked.

Re: IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties

#18
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ft.com/content/6f02ce76-e1d6-45d8-b27a-0491281c2...

That's paywalled. Does anyone have a non paywalled URL?

You can get past the FT paywall by having a google referer. Usually as simple as googling for the headline.

Re: IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties

#19
famous fat line patent !

https://www.forbes.com/asap/2002/0624/044.html

>>> The chief blue suit orchestrated the presentation of the seven patents IBM claimed were infringed, the most prominent of which was IBM's notorious "fat lines" patent: To turn a thin line on a computer screen into a broad line, you go up and down an equal distance from the ends of the thin line and then connect the four points. You probably learned this technique for turning a line into a rectangle in seventh-grade geometry, and, doubtless, you believe it was devised by Euclid or some such 3,000-year-old thinker. Not according to the examiners of the USPTO, who awarded IBM a patent on the process.

Read the whole story and you will see how IBM makes money !

Re: IBM sues Airbnb for patent royalties

#20

The whole US patent system needs to either be scrapped or rebuilt. The purpose it was originally intended to be used for doesn't make sense in a world where most new technology is just software, and software is incredibly easy to copy and duplicate. Getting a software patent is mostly a matter of sneaking past the people at the USPTO, and making sure you're the first to file. These patent factories could just write c…

I guess I always assumed this is more or less how it worked everywhere, at least anywhere that respect intellectual property. Is this not the case? What other models are out there, and which ones work better?
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