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SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

sparkfun.com

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Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#31

Post by unclekev »

postmeta wrote: post #14

Do the people that work there know it's a troll company I wonder? Maybe like working at an MLM company, you've rationalized it in your own mind as protecting inventors and creative people! https://www.linkedin.com/company/ip-edge-llc

From their LinkedIn

> We offer expertise in all phases of patent monetization. Our team has helped inventors and companies alike establish licensing revenue streams from IP. We specialize in uncovering hidden value in IP assets, and monetizing such assets at a price point that maximizes value.

They know that it's a troll company, The "About Us" is essentially "DO YOU HOLD A PATENT?!? CALL US NOW TO MAKE $$$"

If there About Us was more along the lines of "our mission is to protect inventors and represent creative types.." then I would be more inclined to believe the people working there might not be fully aware.

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#32

Post by dylan604 »

sharemywin wrote: post #13
ohazi wrote: post #6

> > The cost is further reduced by employing only static or dynamic ram as a means for holding the state of the system. [...] > Dynamic ram? Can I poke fun at them for not knowing what RAM is? Yes I can. > The above paragraph succinctly describes malloc(), which is perhaps one of the most fundamental advancements in modern computing. The problem is that Al didn’t invent it. Memory management (the ability to take RAM…

I remember when I toured a research nuclear reactor and I was talking with the nuclear phd student and I said something about an alpha particle and the protons and neutrons. And they were trying to say alpha particles aren't made up of protons and neutrons. Made me realize than that even an expert in the field might not know something that I would have thought was common knowledge.

It's not uncommon for someone to be so focused on their specific area of a field that they loose sight of the rest of the areas.

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#34

Post by mikedilger »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #33

I was under the impression that modern patents had to have a clear list of claims but this one has nothing but technobabble and "1 Claim, 64 Drawing Sheets". How was this approved?

I'm pretty sure the patent office has been doing less and less actual work, approving more and more patents, and figuring that the courts can sort it out.

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#35

Post by [deleted] »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #22
sharemywin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when I toured a research nuclear reactor and I was talking with the nuclear phd student and I said something about an alpha particle and the protons and neutrons. And they were trying to say alpha particles aren't made up of protons and neutrons. Made me realize than that even an expert in the field might not know something that I would have thought was common knowledge.

There are some pretty obvious followup questions: - What are alpha particles made of? - When an element undergoes alpha decay, its atomic number is reduced by two. Where do the protons go?

[deleted]

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#36

Post by defaultname »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #33

I was under the impression that modern patents had to have a clear list of claims but this one has nothing but technobabble and "1 Claim, 64 Drawing Sheets". How was this approved?

What is the penalty for the USPTO if they grant patents that shouldn't have been granted?

The answer, of course, is absolutely nothing at all. If someone wants to force a review, the USPTO actually charges to give a patent a second, more thorough look, effectively double dipping.

It is a profoundly broken system, and people do just push tonnes and tonnes of nonsense patents. This includes the major companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google) who start shoveling patents in the notion that they'll have a warchest of bullshit if push comes to shove.

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#37

Post by lamontcg »

sharemywin wrote: post #13
ohazi wrote: post #6

> > The cost is further reduced by employing only static or dynamic ram as a means for holding the state of the system. [...] > Dynamic ram? Can I poke fun at them for not knowing what RAM is? Yes I can. > The above paragraph succinctly describes malloc(), which is perhaps one of the most fundamental advancements in modern computing. The problem is that Al didn’t invent it. Memory management (the ability to take RAM…

I remember when I toured a research nuclear reactor and I was talking with the nuclear phd student and I said something about an alpha particle and the protons and neutrons. And they were trying to say alpha particles aren't made up of protons and neutrons. Made me realize than that even an expert in the field might not know something that I would have thought was common knowledge.

They may have been so into their own bellybutton lint that they were very concerned about the difference between bound quarks on a QCD lattice compared to just elmer's gluing 2 free neutrons and 2 free protons together or something like that.

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#38

Post by cjtrowbridge »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #22
sharemywin wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when I toured a research nuclear reactor and I was talking with the nuclear phd student and I said something about an alpha particle and the protons and neutrons. And they were trying to say alpha particles aren't made up of protons and neutrons. Made me realize than that even an expert in the field might not know something that I would have thought was common knowledge.

There are some pretty obvious followup questions: - What are alpha particles made of? - When an element undergoes alpha decay, its atomic number is reduced by two. Where do the protons go?

An alpha particle is a particle produced during alpha decay. It's always just a helium-4 which is made of two protons and two neutrons but with no electrons. This is why we have to mine for helium because it is produced in the ground by alpha decay.

It's different from normal helium because it doesn't have any electrons and it has an empty orbital which means it really really would like to have some electrons and also it's going crazy fast when it is created so that's why it's dangerous. But then once it takes those electrons from somewhere it becomes normal helium. You just don't want that happening in your body.

It seems like the other commenters in this thread are alluding to the electron thing maybe? Not exactly sure what point they're making.

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#39

Post by caf »

rrss wrote: post #21
ohazi wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line appears to suggest otherwise. > Dynamic ram? Can I poke fun at them for not knowing what RAM is? Yes I can. He's trying to nitpick about the term "dynamic" in this context, which he has misunderstood to mean "dynamic allocation" (i.e. the alternative to "static allocation"). The phrase "static or dynamic RAM" is basically never used to refer to memory allocation, it refers to the physical construction of th…

I read that line as poking fun of the fact that RAM is not capitalized because the lawyers that wrote this think "ram" is a word, not an acronym

That's exactly what I understood it to mean when I read it.

Re: SparkFun Hooks a Patent Troll

#40

Post by BeetleB »

BTW, for anyone who hasn't heard it, the This American Life episode linked to is absolutely worth listening to (or just read the transcript).

They should link to the update to that story:

Transcript: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/496/transcript

Audio: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/496/when-patents-attack-par...

One key takeaway: If you yield to a patent troll and agree to give them some percentage of your earnings, and later that patent gets invalidated - you still have to keep paying.

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