Progressive Coder
GROKLAW
> This is amazing. Do you remember that the Public Patent Foundation asked the US Patent Office to take another look at the JPEG patent? Yesterday, the reexamination proceeding initiated by PubPat bore fruit: the USPTO has rejected the broadest claims Forgent Networks is asserting against the JPEG standard on the basis that the prior [...]
EC: Software is not patentable – ZDNet UK News
> The European Commission said last week that computer programs will be excluded from patentability in the upcoming Community Patent legislation, and that the European Patent Office (EPO) will be bound by this law.
Seems just about everyone opposing software patents didn’t see that one coming, and are [...]
Politicos ponder patent system changes | CNET News.com
> WASHINGTON–In the wake of high-profile lawsuits involving BlackBerry and eBay, Congress is once again talking about fixing what the technology industry says is a thoroughly broken patent system.
The idea is to let the public oppose a patent shortly after it has been approved, making it easier to [...]
Kiwi actor v Amazon.com – Technology – smh.com.au
> After trawling the US patent records, Calveley found another patent describing an “online secure financial transaction system” which had been lodged in 1996 – a year before Amazon’s.
> He also found references to a so-called DigiCash payment method in which a click on a website payment link [...]
Boing Boing: Patent office will ask the public to “peer review” inventions
> The US Patent and Trademark Office has launched “Peer to Patent,” a community patent peer review project. The USPTO is overloaded with patent filings, so it does little or no investigation into patnets before rubber-stamping them, expecting that the courts will sort out [...]
Company claims patent win in online rich media | CNET News.com
> Internet design company Balthaser announced Tuesday that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted it a patent for the design and creation of rich-media services over the Internet.
How many more of these rediculous patents will we have to endure before the US realizes [...]