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Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

inventropy.us

11–20 of 124 posts

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#12

Does it cost a large company more to file a shitty patent than it does the community to crush it?

Filing a patent application costs around $180-$280 [1], not including the other Patent Office fees for Examination/Maintenance. Add onto that the legal fees for marking up the claims, charged out in the $XXX/hr range and you are looking at a few thousand easily. A quick search turned up a 2011 American Intellectual Property Law Association survey suggesting a median cost of $10k [2]. Having in house legal team to tak…

Keep in mind that this is the costs for filing in one country. Each country where the invention needs to be protected needs its own filing, though this would generally be cheaper since much of the work (patent attorney fees) is already done when filing the first one. I have heard that big companies end up something half-a-million dollars for pursuing, what they consider worthy inventions, in all significant economies.

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#13
I do not know what jurisdiction the author is referring to when listing the requirements for a "good patent." But in the US novelty and non-obviousness are just two of the five requirements for a "good patent." The other three are just as important:[1]

  (1) patentable subject matter
  (2) utility
  (5) enablement
After slogging through the language of a lot of patents you start to wonder how so many of them were deemed to meet the enablement requirement.

[1]: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/patent

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#14
post #4

Why on earth i did not have read anywhere about USPTO officials return a letter to this so called patent troll with simple reply: "Explain this pattern in layman language." USPTO officials should have the power to inquire pattern applicants about their pattern until complete understanding, not to work alone and try to understand it by them self. It is hard to understand something technical, and it is utmost difficult…

Worse, patent obfuscation is baldly contrary to the purpose of patents, which is to make the knowledge contained in them available to the public. Were someone to start a startup where users got paid-by-the-view for making educational videos, that would not be too far off from the original intent of patents .

>Were someone to start a startup where users got paid-by-the-view for making educational videos, that would not be too far off from the original intent of patents.

What makes you say that this was the "original intent" of patents? I've never seen anything to suggest this. See the U.S. Constitution:

"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"

Sounds like, even back then, it was more about incentivizing innovation by granting monopolies.

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#15
post #11

project idea: machine learning program that decrypts legalese to find similar patents i wonder if uspo would be interested in licensing it if it was effective enough

It wouldn't even require machine learnign imho.

From the first example:

generating, using a processor = calculating

a plurality of images = images

clusters = groups

It's more of a translation software than machine learning.

Perhaps the translation software could suggest 3-4 variations of the legalese sentence and allow users to vote for the best translation?

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#16
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no edit: source: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html#en_US_2013_pu...

Wait, can lawyers write off pro-bono work? If so, why can't we? Edit: They can't. However, if an employer were to pay you to work for a qualified organization, they could write off that expense.

Yeah, it kind of sucks, but think about it as: You work for the charity, they pay you, then you donate the money you were paid back to the charity. The pay and the donation cancel each other, and it works the same way when the pay and the donation are both zero dollars.

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#17
post #10
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no edit: source: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html#en_US_2013_pu...

Wait, can lawyers write off pro-bono work? If so, why can't we? Edit: They can't. However, if an employer were to pay you to work for a qualified organization, they could write off that expense.

Actually, that's not a bad idea. Start-ups that value patent reform could band together and give a few hours a month to doing this, and I'll bet it would make a pretty significant dent.

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#18
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worse, patent obfuscation is baldly contrary to the purpose of patents, which is to make the knowledge contained in them available to the public. Were someone to start a startup where users got paid-by-the-view for making educational videos, that would not be too far off from the original intent of patents .

>Were someone to start a startup where users got paid-by-the-view for making educational videos, that would not be too far off from the original intent of patents. What makes you say that this was the "original intent" of patents? I've never seen anything to suggest this. See the U.S. Constitution: "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusiv…

It explicitly requires that there must be time limits. That isn't required if all you want to do is reward innovation. The time limits are required because the ultimate purpose is to enrich everyone, which means that everyone gets access once the inventor has gotten a fair shake. For patents in particular, it is well-established in the law (though poorly followed in practice) that a patent ought to serve as a guide to replicating the invention, with the inventor being assured that no one can do so without his permission until the patent expired.

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#19
I included a full language specification with my patent application. Reading boring specifications can also be a drag, so I even wrote a version that sorts information by color. Its all available on http://mailmarkup.org/

If you are aware of any prior art please do the right thing. I have not been able to find any, but that does not mean it doesn't exist.

Re: Am I evil, or is killing patents just plain fun?

#20

I included a full language specification with my patent application. Reading boring specifications can also be a drag, so I even wrote a version that sorts information by color. Its all available on http://mailmarkup.org/ If you are aware of any prior art please do the right thing. I have not been able to find any, but that does not mean it doesn't exist.

My gullibility alarm is ringing loud..

Slideshow:

* Nobody uses this!

* It's patented!

* It's just like HTML!

* I'm not going to tell you which bits are patented!

Can't tell if (literal) troll or comedy genius

Edit: so going by the age of the domain and you having actually filed the patent, I'm assuming it's not just some elaborate joke. And having only skimmed the patent text, I'm failing to see the innovating mechanism or idea you're claiming. The language itself sounds like HTML mail or any of the plethora proprietary markup languages from the 90s (e.g. MS Exchange).

Can you tell us why you think yours is different? This otherwise seems like a textbook case of ridiculous patent.

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