Software Patents: More Bloodcurdling Stuff

An interesting article for connoisseurs of this sort of thing from Ton Sanders in vnunet.com.

The article is headed "Patent threat looms over dynamic web pages". It discusses patent infringement claims that a company called EpicRealm has launched in the USA against 13 companies. The patents are for systems for managing dynamic web page generation. The defendants appear to be end-users rather than software houses and they include dating agencies, a dietary supplement manufacturer and a shopping mall. The interesting parts of the article from a foreign lawyer's perspective are interviews with the lawyers for both sides and the links to the specifications of the patents alleged to have been infringed.

All good stuff. One can see why Florian Mueller gets agitated about software patents here.

Related Posts:
30 Aug 2005 "Software Patents: Call for EP Resolution"
29 Aug 2005 "Applying for Patents"
28 Aug 2005 "UK Patents Acts 1977 - 2004"
25 Aug 2005 "Patents - Excluded Matter: NMR Holdings Pty Ltd.'s No 2 Application
22 Aug 2005 "Basic Patents - IPR Helpdesk Briefing Paper on European Patents

Comments

Anonymous said…
Interesting information. This example shows us how useful is a patent when used with an intelligent strategy.

Indeed, a patent first of all is a tool that serves its owner to enforce an economic domination. If u do not have any patent strategy, a patent does not really help you unless to reassure you that u are the true owner of an invention.

It is also worth mentioning the case of that small company, Edata, who opposed to Apple an old patent relating to the ITUNES Browsing and dowloading system. Instead of arguing about the validity of the patent in legal procedures, Apple prefered to find an agreement and payed a lot of money to have the right of using peacefully that pretended patented system.

Obviously, Edata did not even think at the time it patended its invention, that this patent cud b used to defeat Apple and that it cud become a way of earning royalties from any firm using a system of swaping digital files. The power of this patent was its general terms :
"System for reproducing information in material objects at a point of sale location

The present invention contemplates a system for reproducing information in material objects at a point of sale location wherein the information to be reproduced is provided at the point of sale location from a location remote with respect to the point of sale location, an owner authorization code is provided to the point of sale location in reponse to receiving a request code from the point of sale location requesting to reproducing predetermined information in a material object, and the predetermined information is reproduced in a material object at the point of sale location in response to receiving the owner authorization code".
13:16
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Copyright in Photographs: Temple Island Collections and Creation Records

Image
In our very first NIPC newsletter which we published in June 1997 I wrote a case note on Mr. Justice Lloyd's decision in  Creation Records Ltd. and Others v News Group Newspapers Ltd   [1997] EMLR 444, [1997] EWHC Ch 370, (1997) 16 Tr LR 544. In that case Mr. Noel Gallagher of Oasis and others applied for an interlocutory injunction to restrain The Sun from offering for sale and selling a poster of Oasis that featured a photo of an elaborate set that included a white Rolls Royce in a country club swimming pool. The Sun's photograph was very similar to the photograph that appeared on an Oasis album cover. The similarity arose because The Sun's photographer shot the same scene at roughly the same time and from the same angle as Mr. Gallagher's photographer but he did not reproduce any part of Oasis's print or negative. The learned judge held that the plaintiffs had no arguable case for infringement of copyright though he accepted that they had an arguable case for br...
Read more

"What is meant by "Due Cause" in s.10 (3) of the Trade Marks Act? The Red Bull Case

Image
Amsterdam   Source Wikipedia According to Wikipedia  Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, with 5.2 billion cans sold in 2012. Its manufacturer, Red Bull GmbH , has registered the RED BULL mark has registered those words and their accompanying logo as word and device marks in trade mark registries around the world including the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property ( "BOIP" ) . The company registered that sign with BOIP for non-alcoholic drinks in class 32 with effect from 11 July 1983. After decades of massive sales and extensive advertising nobody could argue that that mark has a reputation within the meaning of art 5 (2) of the Trade Marks Directive (Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 October 2008   to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks OJ 8.11.2008 p 299/25).  S.10 (3) of our Trade Marks Act 1994   implements that provision. There is in the Net...
Read more

Copyright: Creation Records Ltd. v News Group

It is trite law that if two photographers take identical pictures of the same scene at the same time from the same position each of their photographs is an original work and neither infringes the copyright in the other. However, much of the skill of a photographer lies in his choice of subject and the arrangement of the scene. The question whether copyright subsists independently in such an arrangement arose in Creation Records Ltd. v News Group Newspapers Ltd . (1997) The Times 27 April.   The Facts A swimming pool at a country club was drained and various props including a white Rolls Royce motor car assembled for a photograph of a well-known group of musicians for reproduction on their album cover. Although the public was not admitted to the session certain fans of the group who happened to be there were allowed to photograph the scene before official pictures were taken. A freelance photographer who was booked into the club photographed the scene during the session. One of his pict...
Read more