U.S. software patents

Take sure there is a US patent on each idea and each action you will have a day.

Introduced originally to protect innovation, the U.S. system has evolved to the point where firms are founded only to tax the companies that innovate through portfolios of "patents" that they buy and have no other activities.

But the most absurd is that many software patents filed by even the best-known companies are obvious ideas that anybody would have had and for which they claim hundreds of millions of dollars when used by others.

Microsoft: Patent on page flip

Here is a summary of the patent filed by Microsoft : how a page is turned on a computer or mobile phone. Even if I have already seen such graphical effect on personal computers as older as the Apple II.

One or more pages are displayed on a touch display. A page-turning gesture directed to a displayed page is recognized. Responsive to such recognition, a virtual page turn is displayed on the touch display. The virtual page turn actively follows the page-turning gesture. The virtual page turn curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page...

• The patent 20100175018 on July 8, 2010.
• Video of BeOS. Anteriority of the representation of a page turning.
• Patent of modularity. They have invented modularity but not russian dolls for now (more to come). Patent.

BT: A patent on hyperlink

British Telecom said it has filed a patent in 1976 on links in a page and that the patent was granted in 1986.
Following what it has sued the company Prodigy Internet December 13, 2000.
It claims:

We have a duty to our shareholders to exploit intellectual property just as any other company does.

But the patent makes no mention of the mouse and only speaks of keyboard to activate the link. In addition, a prototype of hypertext system had been previously created in 1968 by a researcher at Stanford (see documents).

Apple: All mobile applications belong them

In a patent dated 29 July 2010, Apple assumes authorship of the use of any travel service from a mobile.
To illustrate this application it gives a diagram taken from a screenshot of a third-party application on the AppStore since 2008!

On the left a screenshot of the Where To application, on the right the diagram in the patent from Apple. The issue of prior art is not of concern for the Cuppertino firm.
Apple does not patent Where To but the service on which relies this application created by another company.

• The patent 20100190510 on July 29, 2010. Travel on a mobile.
• The patent 20100191551 on July 29, 2010. Hotel reservations on a mobile.
• Patent on a virtual keyboard.
• Patent on the rotation of the image. As shown in the picture to the right, the fact that an image goes from portrait to landscape mode would be an invention of Apple, when directed by thumbs. Look like they want to patent moves of the thumbs.

Paul Allen: Patent on Web sites

The Microsoft co-founder had a trial at all the major players of the Web, except... Microsoft.
The targets: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Apple, AOL, Youtube.
The patents:

• Browser for use in navigating a body of information.
• Use of website (...) to categorize, compare and display segments of a body of information.
• Alerting users to items of current interest.

These patents are accompanied by ridiculous graphs to show the flow of information.
That is as to designate the entire web (except Microsoft) as infringing patents of Paul Allen!

• The complaint of Paul Allen (PDF).
• Patent 6757682.
• Update December 29, 2010: The complaint has been dismissed on December 11 because it was too vague and a new one whas submitted on December 28. Source.

Facebook: Patent on the number of clicks

Facebook obtained a patent, filed in 2004 on an "invention": to classify the results of a search engine based on the number of clicks!

Ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation.

Brilliant invention which is also part of the Google algorithm.

• The patent.

Patent on a stick as "Animal Toy", toast and other jokes.

To see how far we can go with the U.S. patent system, Ross Long applied for a patent on a simple wooden stick, cutted from a branch.
The stick is now patented.

• Patent 6360393. Patent on stick as a toy for a dog, with image. March 26, 2002. The link to USPTO is on the page.
• Patent 6080436. Patent of toast, untitled, "how to refresh bread".
• Patent on haircut (4022227).
• Apparatus for faciliting birth by centrifugal force (3216423).
• A firm claims ownership of drop down menus.
• Snowman. Attributed to Angela Holiday in 2006.

The system reformed

Following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bilski, the USPTO had to review the software rules and methods.

A new system supported by large companies including Google has been voted by the Senate in September 2011, the Leahy-Smith Invents America Act.

• This is the first to file a patent and not the first to use who gets the invention.
  This solves the case where two people have made ​​the same invention at the same time.
• However, the "prior art" still exists and prevents the filing of a patent. It will also be easier to enforce thanks to post-grant review process.
  If the invention is described in a printed publication, or already marketed, it is Prior Art.

Cases

• Cover Flow. Apple sentenced to pay 200 million dollars because of a patent on a technology it used long before it was patented. (View Cover Flow). Patent.
• EOLAS. Microsoft sentenced to pay 520 million dollars for embedding objects in a Web page. Patent. This patent is easy to bypass.

Documents

• Letter to abolish software patents in Australia. Closed. New-Zealand recently abolished patentability of software.
• Patent absurdity. Video.
• Patently Ridiculous Claims. Washington Post.
• Apple wants to patent any mobile use.
• Why we need to abolish software patents.
• The cost of patents. Too much money est used to protect itself against litigations, that could be used in innovation.
• Open Invention Network. A pool (including IBM, Novell, RedHat) created to protect Linux by filing patents to counterattack the firms that would sue Linux users.
• Swpat. Wiki about software patents.
• Why graphene is not patented. "We will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life suing us.", said a firm.
• When patents attack. About Intellectual Ventures and patents. An answer.

Who is suying who? The patent circus between mobiles makers...

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