EFF's Stupid Patent of the Month: Do It with a Computer

EFF's Stupid Patent of the Month: Do It with a Computer(eff.org)

70 points by billyvg 10 years ago | 17 comments

_asummers 10 years ago |

Similar to the article linked in the post, SCOTUS has started clamping down on these sorts of patents.[0] I suspect this one will also be killed eventually. It's really a shame that the patent office is still giving out these sorts of patents, however, and wasting everyone's time and effort.

[0] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/09/supreme-court-rul...

kaybe 10 years ago | |

SCOTUS = Supreme Court of the United States, in case anyone else was wondering.

talmand 10 years ago | |

But how many millions of dollars will potentially be wasted until it gets killed?

durkie 10 years ago |

hey! nice to get some coverage here. i'm with comingle, one of the companies being sued here. we're building a cache of prior art and are looking for all the help we can get!

chris_wot 10 years ago |

They really need to find a way of firing patent examiners who grant these sort of patents. I'm fairly certain that would help reduce the amount of patents granted,

_yosefk 10 years ago | |

A way was not yet found to fire Madoff's regulators. (In fact a way should have been found to put them behind bars for a couple of decades.) So regarding firing patent examiners, I'm not holding my breath.

stillsut 10 years ago |

"teledildonics" - nice, I might add this as a skill to my linkedin

knieveltech 10 years ago | |

You simply must share any correspondence from recruiters that include reference to this skill.

a3n 10 years ago |

Bumper sticker: Trolls do it with computers.

auntienomen 10 years ago |

Perhaps someone should patent a process for generating 'do X on a computer' patents?

Abraln 10 years ago | |

Or even "method for submitting a patent application over the Internet!" If you actually managed to get it, that might actually be stupid enough to get some legislation passed. At minimum it would halt patent applications for a while until it is thrown out.

That's actually not a bad idea. Keep making patents that are as stupid as possible in order to force a change in policy or legislation. Unfortunately the cost would probably make it unfeasible.

nefitty 10 years ago | |

I'll patent "do something meta"

amelius 10 years ago |

Computers are intended to automate things, so the prior art is already covered by the very definition of a computer (albeit in an abstract sense).

actsasbuffoon 10 years ago |

Note: Some may find the article VUFW (Vaguely Uncomfortable for Work).

knieveltech 10 years ago |

So...teledildonics is a word. I'm going to enjoy trying to work this into conversation.

s73v3r 10 years ago |

You know, it's really funny that everyone knocks these patents (and rightly so), but the second some service comes up that does the same stuff as has been done before, but suddenly it's "on an app!" that means it's revolutionary, and old regulations shouldn't apply to it.

nefitty 10 years ago |

We must demand and support innovation from the teledildonics sector!