Goddamnit, I have a patent
I received papers from Sony today saying that the USPTO actually approved some ridiculous patent application that my then-coworkers dragged me into filing with them four years ago.
I think it’s just further evidence of how overwhelmed the patent office is, of how ill-equipped they are to evaluate software patents, and of how software patents are usually lame. It’s another example of how large corporations flood the patent office with anything and everything to try to build up their patent portfolios, and not because they think they’re good ideas worth pursuing, but because they want things with which to defend themselves in case someone else sues them for patent infringement. Stupid patent cold wars.
It saddens me to think that my name is associated with that dreck. On the other hand, my name’s all over the dreck that I call my weblog, and as we already know, it’s not an uncommon name anyway.
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Heh. Yeah, my spurious patent that I filed from Morgan Stanley was rejected I think (or at least I never heard about it again).
At least something to put on your CV.
Fixing the patent system was actually in my portfolio to fix at the White House, but way too complicated. So I didn’t get anywhere, but my successor has been trying.
In its defense, the DOJ economist who looks at this made an interesting point. That a patent does not say what you did is novel, a patent is the right to take someone to court to prove that your patent is novel.
The patent office is only responsible for the first pass filter.
— ben @ August 3, 2007, 8:00 am (PT)
I wouldn’t want to put it on my CV, though. I wouldn’t want prospective employers to look it up and see how stupid it is.
The idea that a patent is the right to go to court is pretty interesting, but even so, the bar is still way too low. I also don’t think that’s the way things ought to be; it discourages others from violating the patent, regardless of how mundane it is, because other people don’t want to have the burden of challenging the patent or defending against a lawsuit.
— James @ August 3, 2007, 11:16 am (PT)
All that mess for Clie Test?
— Kevin @ August 6, 2007, 1:39 pm (PT)