https://pinboard.in/u:jm/public/ recent bookmarks from jm 2019-09-26T10:42:50+00:00 https://www.gnome.org/news/2019/09/gnome-foundation-facing-lawsuit-from-rothschild-patent-imaging/ jm software-patents swpats shotwell gnome linux open-source patents https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:d58268eb8178/ 2018-11-30T11:05:30+00:00 https://patentpandas.org/stories/company-patented-my-idea jmI looked up the patent application and luckily, this time the patent application was still being reviewed by the patent examiner.  It had not issued! The provisional was filed August 29, 2014, months after my first interview and visit back in March 2014.  Two of the inventors listed were the same people who had interviewed me.  This is frankly appalling behaviour from Google -- total abuse of the patent system. If Joi Ito hadn't been around to mediate this patent probably would have issued and this researcher's life's work stolen from her through IP dirty tricks. (Also, patents need to die)]]> patents software-patents google dirty-tricks interviewing ip mit medialab paper jie-qi https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:dd9fd9a32567/ 2017-09-11T10:23:09+00:00 https://medium.com/@ji/the-react-license-for-founders-and-ctos-b38d2538f3e5 jmThe difficulty of open sourcing code at Facebook, including React in 2013, was one of the reasons the company’s open-source contributions used to be a fraction of what they are today. It didn’t use to have a strong reputation as an open-source contributor to front-end technologies. Facebook wanted to open source code, though; when it grew communities for projects like React, core contributors emerged to help out and interview candidates often cited React and other Facebook open source as one of the reasons they were interested in applying. People at Facebook wanted to make it easier to open source code and not worry as much about patents. Facebook’s solution was the Facebook BSD+Patents license. ]]> facebook bsd licenses licensing asf patents swpats react license software-patents open-source rocksdb https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:49a759b197d4/ 2013-08-28T22:25:33+00:00 http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/in-historic-vote-new-zealand-bans-software-patents/ jmA major new patent bill, passed in a 117-4 vote by New Zealand's Parliament after five years of debate, has banned software patents. The relevant clause of the patent bill actually states that a computer program is "not an invention." Some have suggested that was a way to get around the wording of the TRIPS intellectual property treaty, which requires patents to be "available for any inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology." [...] One Member of Parliament who was deeply involved in the debate, Clare Curran, quoted several heads of software firms complaining about how the patenting process allowed "obvious things" to get patented and that "in general software patents are counter-productive." Curran quoted one developer as saying, "It's near impossible for software to be developed without breaching some of the hundreds of thousands of patents granted around the world for obvious work." "These are the heavyweights of the new economy in software development," said Curran. "These are the people that needed to be listened to, and thankfully, they were." ]]> new-zealand nz patents swpats law trips ip software-patents yay https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:ea0e207631b3/ 2013-03-16T22:24:56+00:00 http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/america-invents-act/all/ jm“Now it’s really important to be the first to file, and it’s really important to file before somebody else puts a product out, or puts the invention in their product,” says Barr, adding that it will “create a new urgency on the part of everyone to file faster -- and that’s going to be a problem for the small inventor.”]]> first-to-file omnishambles uspto swpats patents software-patents law legal https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:1f3a3e655d99/ 2013-01-27T21:47:08+00:00 http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/how-newegg-crushed-the-shopping-cart-patent-and-saved-online-retail/ jmPatent trolling is based upon deficiencies in a critical, but underdeveloped, area of the law. The faster we drive these cases to verdict, and through appeal, and also get legislative reform on track, the faster our economy will be competitive in this critical area. We're competing with other economies that are not burdened with this type of litigation. China doesn't have this, South Korea doesn't have this, Europe doesn't have this. [...] It's actually surprising how quickly people forget what Lemelson did. [referring to Jerome Lemelson, an infamous patent troll who used so-called "submarine patents" to make billions in licensing fees.] This activity is very similar. Trolls right now "submarine" as well. They use timing, like he used timing. Then they pop up and say "Hello, surprise! Give us your money or we will shut you down!" Screw them. Seriously, screw them. You can quote me on that. ]]> patent-trolls east-texas newegg shopping-cart swpat software-patents patents ecommerce soverain https://pinboard.in/ https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:383fac7a7c41/