On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 08:32:19PM -0400, Robert Treat wrote:
> Someone mentioned to me that IBM and Oracle have several patents in this area,
> is anyone looking into that angle?
Given the remarkable dearth of patent lawyers in this group, I think
this is the wrong group of people to be doing patent searches. That
doesn't mean one should do work that one knows infringes on a patent.
But if you don't know about, and haven't been apprised of, a patent
that you are infringing, it seems a bad idea to go looking for patents
on which to infringe knowingly. Especially in light of the tendency
of the USPTO to issue patents on completely obvious things. (Wearing
another hat, I have been reminded of this once again today. Someone
apparently got a patent on using the position of a GPS receiver, and
using that datum to give out authorization to certain data. Like, it
would never have _occurred_ to anyone to use the data from GPS for
purposes other than, say, Trivial Pursuit. Yes, clearly an innovation
that had to be defended from the ever-present freeloaders who just
want to ride on the backs of genuine inventions like deducing things
from a GPS receiver's position.)
A
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Andrew Sullivan
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