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
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