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Business idea patents, oh my gosh.

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Business idea patents, oh my gosh.
I was just reading on zdnet about how amazon, barnes & noble, expedia, ebay and priceline are being sued or have reached agreement with business idea patent holders, wow.

It seems some guy thought of online auctions a few years ago and was able to patent the process and now he wants ebay to pay up, amazon have already paid their dues and so have many others. I didn`t even know you could patent a business idea.

This really sucks and these guys are vultures, this could mean any business you start could have some dude coming after you saying he thought of it first, wow.

Err hold on a minute I thought of cleaning windows from a ladder first, you have to pay me to do it, madness, this kind of thing just makes my blood boil, and affirms my dislike of the legal proffesion who are always the winners, leaches, leaches, leaches, I hate the sue culture.

I really do think greedy lawyers and their ilke will ruin the western world for everybody else.

PS did you know that studying law is the most prevalent course at Uni in the UK, more leaching lawyers thats all we need, not.

rant

chmod
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Re: [chmod] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
>>
This really sucks and these guys are vultures, this could mean any business you start could have some dude coming after you saying he thought of it first, wow.
<<

Well it's not really as simple as that....regarding the ebay case, the person that sued ebay wasn't just "some guy", he actually owned patents that ebay were infringing or seemed to be infringing.

If you patent and idea and someone infringes it don't you have a right to claim?....I'd say you do, otherwise what is the point of patenting?

Last edited by:

Paul: Sep 7, 2002, 3:40 AM
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Re: [Paul] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
I think that something as generic as this should be cause for loss of patent. Anyone remember Microsoft's suit against Lindows.com? MS insisted people are getting Windows and Linux confused due to the name of the product. The judge decided that since the term "windows" had been in use for so long as a generic term to describe a gui where each program ran in an enclosed area, and a term used by many users and other companies besides MS, that even using the word "windows" in a product name, or some permutation therof, was not grounds for infringment.

Thus, if it were fair to patent a generic online business model, the patent holder should have to sue each and every online auction site that exists (hm.. how many? 1M?). That's imposible for them to do. Therefore, leaching is the right term... as what these people do is only target a limited number of large businesses.

Philip
------------------
Limecat is not pleased.
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Re: [fuzzy thoughts] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
copywrites and patents should be protected but who is going to allow me charging you money for peeing in the wind?

I agree with fuzzy thoughts. A better system for registriation and checking should be put in place. Also, an idea of term of use for certain types should be also put into use.

I'm not anywhere near knowledgable about this topic but common sense does have some use.

On-line auctions ... dam who was the fool who let that patent go through.
This sounds like the case of hyperlinks. Why at this time does this person step forward? Obviously he/she was waiting for the deepest penetration of auctions on the net. Also, this really doesn't make sense because an on-line auction is just an extension of a real auction and those that are conducted live over the net. So, my vote is down with this patent.

Patents should really be used for truley inventive ideas and not just an adaption of an older idea to the net.

I truly believe that one day progress in technology will decrease because everybody will be sooooo scared shitless of being sued that people won't want to incorporate new ideas.


hmmm, I wonder if there is a patent on jerking off to images found on the internet?

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
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Re: [QooQ] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
>>
hmmm, I wonder if there is a patent on jerking off to images found on the internet?
<<

Scared someone might try to sue you? Laugh
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Re: [Paul] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
nope, I was planning on registering it and sueing you Wink

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
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Re: [QooQ] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
Damn, you got me there, infact coincidentally I just finished downloading a 600MB DVD....took me 4 days, thats how desperate I am.

Last edited by:

Paul: Sep 8, 2002, 12:25 PM
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Re: [Paul] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
Was it worth it?

hmmm, wife is gone for a few more days. ...

@ porn

I wonder if women download porn images too? Or is just a male thing?

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
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Re: [QooQ] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
No it wasn't worth it.

@ Women
Of course they do, they are just too proud to admit it. They also fart like trojans.

Last edited by:

Paul: Sep 8, 2002, 12:34 PM
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Re: [Paul] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
@ download
hehe, stick to the 5 minute clips ... they're noramlly better Angelic

@ farts
thanks for the info Crazy

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
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Re: [QooQ] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
Quote:
Patents should really be used for truley inventive ideas and not just an adaption of an older idea to the net.

I truly believe that one day progress in technology will decrease because everybody will be sooooo scared shitless of being sued that people won't want to incorporate new ideas.

I gotta agree with you there QooQ, when you look deep you realise that the legal proffession have all this never ending red tape, officialdom, and sue culture close to their hearts and walletts so I dont see an end to it.

chmod
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Re: [chmod] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
I don't see what you are getting at lawyers for, all they do is represent clients.
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Re: [Paul] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
Or the public, or the crown. Mine represents my former bank balanceBlush
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Re: [Paul] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
I wonder who owns the patent for a "Web Directory" and who will sue us for using Links... Shocked I think Al Gore should sue everyone since he invented the Internet. Laugh
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Re: [chmod] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
True. I think patenting an "idea" is total bullshit. The online auction guy in part of his suit says that the idea was to store images on one server and auction data on another and allow users to bid on it and pay for it using yet another server. What total crap! Of course it doesn't help ebay's case any in the fact that they were negotiating with the guy to license his patent, but decided not to.
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Re: [Watts] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
Where will it end? Point and click patent? Power on button patent? Get out of bed in the morning patent?


http://www.iuni.com/...tware/web/index.html
Links Plugins
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Re: [Ian] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
Amazon's got that one with its "one click ordering patent"...although really difficult to enforce, since many e-commerce sites use that "technology/idea".
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [Ian] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
Actually, I have a patent on the name "Ian", so you need to pay up! Laugh
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Re: [chmod] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
     In The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co. vs. Supermarket Corp.,
340 U.S. 147 (1950) Mr. Justice Douglas filed an interesting
concurring opinion for himself and Justice Black.

"It is not enough," says Justice Douglas , "that an article is
new and useful. The Constitution never sanctioned the patenting of
gadgets. Patents serve a higher end--the advancement of science. An
invention need not be as startling as an atomic bomb to be patentable.
But it has to be of such quality and distinction that masters of the
scientific field in which it falls will recognize it as an advance."
He then quotes the following from an opinion of Justice Bradley's
given 70 [now 120] years before:

"It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for
every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would
naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator
in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate
creation of exclusive privileges tends rater to obstruct than to
stimulate invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make
it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather
its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a
heavy tax upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything
to the real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit
of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown
liabilities lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good
faith." (Atlantic Works v. Brady, 1017 U.S. 192, 200 (1882)).


The above words may be Patented or Patent Pending.

The Borg are also Patent Pending. Resistance is futile, U will be patented !

Thanks

Kode
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Re: [kode] Business idea patents, oh my gosh. In reply to
true lawyers are not bad in general since they are doing their job. But when a society has been saturated with lawyers they need to find clients. Their clients want to make easy money. Now, if people weren't greedy we wouldn't need to making jabs at lawyers and what not.

Lawyers in Japan try to persuade clients not to sue. Why don't the lawyers in the States do the same?

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile