KalNet Message Board

Showing, again, why the patent system needs an overhaul:

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/20193/53/

Microsoft tries to patents Page Up and Page Down keys. It was granted to them.

Fighting patent trolls:

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/11/18/1725231.shtml

No more software patents?

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... -ready.ars

WoW and other MMORPG games sued for a very vague patent:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=16280

Red Hat and its case against software patents:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nf/20091002/tc_nf/69314

New Zealand makes software unpatentable:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/07/15/ ... art_pos=17

Some nifty inventions:

http://www.uphaa.com/blog/index.php/coo ... now-exist/

Google says the system needs to be overhauled:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=22269

This is pretty interesting:

Estimates put the rate of full or partial invalidation during reexamination at around 75 percent.

Seems like it's barely worth getting a patent at all.

Also a couple funny quotes from Steve Jobs.

Old Steve:

'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

New Steve:

Competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.

Hypocrisy is a lovely side effect of copious amounts of cash.

I mean, Google's not pure white in this either. Many argue they're only as big as they are because they enforced their search algorithm patents.

It seems like atleast Google uses their patents defensivly for the most part:

... Google was built on the "PageRank patent”, U.S. Patent No. 6,285,999, a generic internet patent ... [Google] didn't use the PageRank to litigate.

Google's business model depends on them being able to create a "free" alternative to something that is currently being monetized. Its their bread and butter. Of course they hate software patents. Its the new embrace and extend except that Google's main concern is to make sure they're everywhere you are technology wise in order to sell ads. Their entire business model depends on their ability to push ads onto whatever you're using or sell usage habits.

Understanding the cellphone patent wars:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... atform.ars

A pretty complete run-down of M$' cellphone patents and how they use it to make gobs of cash off Google's Android:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=23088

Barnes & Noble says what M$ is suing all the Android sellers over:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/15/ ... id-patents