Lack of Standards Clogs Patent Courts

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Smart phones become legal football.

 

Apple is one of the greatest outfits to resort to the courts.  They clearly have too much money to spend on lawyers.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

This is very interesting but Apple has infringed on more patents and has gotten away with it. I think the reason is because most US politicians use iPhones.

 

 

--Ocram

[Duke87 1,070]

I can't help but think that all this drama could be avoided if the PTO stopped handing out patents like candy and required that you actually invent something special and unobvious to qualify for one.

 

An example of the absurdity: Amazon owns a patent on "one click shopping". So, if you're anyone but Amazon, you have to set up your system so it requires two or more clicks to buy something, or pay Amazon handsome royalties.

 

Then you have the matter of patent trolls. I have a modest proposal: a patent should be declared instantly null and void if its holder is not offering a product using the patented invention. Hell, the same should be true of copyright law. Use it or lose it, folks. None of this nonsense about "I'm not selling it but I'm not going to let anyone else sell it either".

[Wiimeiser 445]

Doesn't Sega own a patent for using arrows to guide the player? Does Super Mario World count as an infringement then?

[LexusInfernus 908]

No, because you can't patent or copyright gameplay mechanics. 

[Duke87 1,070]

Actually, that patent does exist, at least in the US. There may not be counterparts in other countries. But, two things:

1) if you read through it it's a lot more specific than "using arrows to guide a player".

2) it was filed in 1997, so Super Mario World would have predated it and could invalidate it as prior art if it did in fact conflict.

 

It does indeed seem ridiculous that this sort of thing would be patentable but the one time Sega attempted to sue someone for infringement they settled out of court, so there has never been a formal challenge to it.