Microsoft patents software development

[Lori M Olson (TeamB)]

Un-freakin-believable

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+checks+off+patent+win/2100-1008_3-5228693.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news

[Anders Ohlsson (Borland)]

Post by Lori M Olson (TeamB)
Un-freakin-believable
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+checks+off+patent+win/2100-1008_3-5228693.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news

How long have we had todo lists? Years and years, right?

[Anders Ohlsson (Borland)]

Exactly. Of course you never came up with the bright idea of
PATENTING it. Jeez. Does the patent office REALLY just rubber stamp
these things?

What happened to pre-existing?

I'd better go and do some research. I'm sure I can come up with some
great idea to steal, I mean patent.

*sigh*

[William Meyer]

Post by Anders Ohlsson (Borland)
What happened to pre-existing?

You mean prior art? It seems to have been actively ignored by many of
the USPTO staff over the last couple of decades. :(

[softcoder]

The ignorance of the patent office regarding software dev is somewhat
obvious here. But as alluded to in others posts here, will a challenge stand
in court. No.

Post by William Meyer

Post by Anders Ohlsson (Borland)
What happened to pre-existing?

You mean prior art? It seems to have been actively ignored by many of
the USPTO staff over the last couple of decades. :(
--
Bill
--------
"I cannot under-take to lay my finger on that article in the
Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the
object of benevolence, the money of their constituents." -- James
Madison

[Lori M Olson (TeamB)]

Post by softcoder
The ignorance of the patent office regarding software dev is somewhat
obvious here. But as alluded to in others posts here, will a challenge stand
in court. No.

The reak crime here is that someone is going to have to spend the $$$
challenging this, either in court, or through the patent office. It's
disgusting.

[softcoder]

But litigation being the driving force behind the fall and rise of many
empires now gives an ace to those will full time litigators. Nothing to lose
for MS but everything to lose for those with less resources. Same as any
other court case though. Notice in Canada the Plantiff pays the costs for
the defendant if they lose. I think thats why we see less high profile
lawsuits in Canada??

Mark Vejvoda
www.soft-haus.com/blog

Post by Lori M Olson (TeamB)

Post by softcoder
The ignorance of the patent office regarding software dev is somewhat
obvious here. But as alluded to in others posts here, will a challenge stand
in court. No.

The reak crime here is that someone is going to have to spend the $$$
challenging this, either in court, or through the patent office. It's
disgusting.
--
Regards,
Lori Olson (TeamB)

[Lori M Olson [TeamB]]

Post by softcoder
But litigation being the driving force behind the fall and rise of many
empires now gives an ace to those will full time litigators. Nothing to lose
for MS but everything to lose for those with less resources. Same as any
other court case though. Notice in Canada the Plantiff pays the costs for
the defendant if they lose. I think thats why we see less high profile
lawsuits in Canada??
Mark Vejvoda
www.soft-haus.com/blog

Probably (sez the Calgary native)

[William Meyer]

Post by Lori M Olson (TeamB)
The reak crime here is that someone is going to have to spend the $$$
challenging this, either in court, or through the patent office.
It's disgusting.

Absolutely!

[William Meyer]

Post by softcoder
The ignorance of the patent office regarding software dev is somewhat
obvious here. But as alluded to in others posts here, will a
challenge stand in court. No.

Other patents, granted in other fields, on equally fallacious grounds,
have been tested and been brought down. Still, the shame of it is that
it is left to private companies to spend thousands or millions undoing
the harm created by ignorant civil servants.

[Tor Iver Wilhelmsen (TeamB)]

Post by William Meyer
You mean prior art? It seems to have been actively ignored by many of
the USPTO staff over the last couple of decades. :(

I read somewhere that the patent office is so over-worked they only
have five minutes per patent application... hard to find prior art in
that time.

[William Meyer]

Post by Tor Iver Wilhelmsen (TeamB)
I read somewhere that the patent office is so over-worked they only
have five minutes per patent application... hard to find prior art in
that time.

As may be, but the patent law doesn't excuse their failure to perform.

[Shankar Unni]

Post by William Meyer
You mean prior art? It seems to have been actively ignored by many of
the USPTO staff over the last couple of decades. :(

They're actually pretty open about this, without saying it in so many
words. The philosophy is to deliberately understaff the patent office
(and raise patent fees to exorbitant levels so only large corporate
customers can afford it).

Then, patents are always just automatically handed out without any
verification of prior art, and the official answer to how they can get
away with this is that "Oh, that's OK - we have checks and balances in
our court system".

So yes, Microsoft and IBM and HP and Oracle can take out thousands of
specious patents (even based on obvious prior art), and force small
competitors to spend vast sums in court to challenge them. Or knuckle
under and pay protection money (sorry, "IP license fees").

Hey, that's the way the "people" want it, right? As far as Congress is
concerned, "people" == "whoever's paying them the most money up front"..

</rant>..

[Lori M Olson (TeamB)]

Post by Anders Ohlsson (Borland)

Post by Lori M Olson (TeamB)
Un-freakin-believable
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+checks+off+patent+win/2100-1008_3-5228693.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news

How long have we had todo lists? Years and years, right?

Exactly. Of course you never came up with the bright idea of PATENTING
it. Jeez. Does the patent office REALLY just rubber stamp these things?

I'd better go and do some research. I'm sure I can come up with some
great idea to steal, I mean patent.

[Paul Nichols (TeamB)]

Post by Lori M Olson (TeamB)
Un-freakin-believable

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+checks+off+patent+win/2100-1008_3-5228693.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news
Good business, lousy PR...


Will be interesting to see if a number of companies get the DOJ behind MS
again, after some of these patent moves.

It is such moves as this, which makes a growing segment of the programming
and IT world utterly despise Microsoft.

[Buch]

A car radio I have had very_long_time_ago, still has (I presume, it is
burried on junkyard) preset buttons for frequency changing.
Tune on freq, and then hold pressed for some time to remember.
If pressed briefly, it switches to remembered freq.

Will car radio manufacturers will have to pay ms money?
Or, charge ms for their usage of prolongued click (press)?

I think that whole idea about patents is getting out of hands - it is meant
to protect investment in research, not to choke competition.

[Daniel Becroft]

Post by Lori M Olson (TeamB)
Un-freakin-believable
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+checks+off+patent+win/2100-1008_3-5228693.html?part=rss&tag=feed&sub
j=news

It just sounds like a Microsoft version of the @todo JBuilder tag, but a little more 'automated'.