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  • JasonInofuentes - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    That really calls for a novelty Twitter account. @PatentTroll Explains himself in 140 characters.
  • sjael - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    Am I the only one who saw the headline and thought "What's Apple got on PCIe?" >_>

    I do love these ambiguous patents though. Like the guy in Australia who patented a 'circular transportation facilitation device.'
  • Camikazi - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    Unless I am reading that wrong, are you saying someone patented the wheel?
  • sjael - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    It was an 'Innovation Patent,' which is basically a standard patent, but without any examination process. A guy decided to prove how flawed the system was by patenting the wheel.

    This was back in 2001, though.
  • Camikazi - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    Nice, interesting idea though, at least he wasn't serious about using it :P
  • MobiusStrip - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link

    There was another where an 8-year-old patented "a method of swinging", as in playground swinging. The "method" was to pull down alternately on the chains, causing the seat to oscillate from side to side.

    Yes, that's the USPTO: protecting "innovation."
  • LordOfTheBoired - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link

    That beats my plan to try and get a patent on "a mechanism for utilizing voltage variances to represent a numerical system".

    I figure that given how many dumb patents are granted, it's probably not actually HARD to get a patent on the digital computer if you obfuscate it behind enough words.
    The hard part is not getting sued into oblivion the very second you try to collect your first round of royalties.
  • InternetGeek - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    There is something odd about the writing style of the patents. It's almost as if the text was generated. Kinda similar to that article in wired.com about the guy who generates books based on internet searches. However, it is clever what they are trying. They are not trying to patent out a standard, but just the way to implement it. Tricky. I hope it gets thrown out.
  • fatpenguin - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    Aren't they just a distributor? How can they be sued when they didn't design anything?
  • Camikazi - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    Tiger Direct and Systemax are the same company and Systemax builds and sells computers like Dell.
  • TSS - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    Came across this today. I was waiting for a patent litigation post to post it, because sad thing is, i knew one would be along shortly.

    http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/21/technology/patent_...

    Aren't patents grand?

    I really wonder how much money would be made by companies if patents didn't exist at all. Probably more money would be made in total, by alot more smaller companies then a few big ones raking in all the cash...
  • jimhsu - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    The problem per se is not the patent system, but rather two horribly broken parts of the system: a) the fact that patents with significant prior art go through anyways, and b) the fact that patents go unused by people (until the lawsuit comes up, for example here).

    A Patent, as opposed to a trade secret, is an exclusive RIGHT granted by the state to an inventor for a LIMITED amount of time in exchange for PUBLIC DISCLOSURE. There are three parts to this: the patent must be new, non-obvious, and useful or applicable. An implicit assumption is that the inventor of the patent trades public disclosure for the right to utilize the patent, whether as a product, or licensing it to others, etc.

    The fact that "patent troll" companies exist that neither use nor license their patents fundamentally opposes the goals of the patent system. Hence, reform to address patents that are unutilized is needed, such as having unutilized patents expire prematurely if a) no use can be demonstrated, and b) no attempt to use or license the patent is made.
  • MobiusStrip - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link

    Um, the bigger problem is the patenting of things that are supposed to be unpatentable:

    1. algorithms (all software)
    2. the obvious

    Then we have "business methods"; I don't know what the rules say about them, but they're horseshit. Amazon patents the act of clicking on something to buy it. This is analagous to patenting the act of pointing at the meat you want under the deli counter.
  • semo - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link

    Never mind how much money companies would have lost. Think how much they would have gained if SED and OLED TVs already existed. Or anything else that was shelved due to patent fears
  • Galcobar - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    Favourite patent still has to be this one:

    Bread Refreshing Method, 1999
    http://www.google.com/patents?id=IpwDAAAAEBAJ&...

    Yes, it's a patent for toast.
  • John Roberts 1 - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link

    Anyone else visited their website. It's a hoot. Love the totally spurious links to Cambridge, Missouri and the US Navy!
  • versesuvius - Thursday, September 22, 2011 - link

    Accordingly, if it wasn't for patents, humanity would be living in caves or somewhere very close to it. Patents are ridiculous. To begin with, they have never served any kind of "public", and have hindered the advance of prosperity and progress and justice for as long as the idea of "patents' has been put in place. The idea that humanity would not write, compose, invent and create in the absence of patents, is an awful idea that only some instinctively criminal capitalist could come up with and implement with such vengeance as it is in America. It is basically a means to preserve the inevitably temporary edge in the course of history that a society has acquired. It is usury in its meanest form.
  • Cheesetogo - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link

    I've been reading these articles more and more recently, and this just really annoys the heck out of me. I've never written to my congressman or senator before, but I guess this was the last straw. I took 15 minutes to write a letter to both of them. I encourage the rest of you to do the same.

    Don't think, "oh, someone else can do it," and then browse Dailytech for 15 minutes. Just take a few minutes to write to your senator and/or representative.
  • Cheesetogo - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link

    Posting here will do NOTHING. Writing to people with the power to introduce and vote on legislation might do SOMETHING.
  • mars2k - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link

    Please someone tell me
  • JonnyDough - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link

    One of the listed companies will have to come up with recorded research showing how PCI-E was derived and the case will be closed. Secondly, it may be agreed that a new standard will be created so that PCI-E is no more. I for one would love for a new slot design that utilizes less space to be created. E-SATA has a ton of bandwidth and is merely a cord. It would be nice to see an approach that makes it not quite as long on the board to free up precious real-estate on future motherboards.
  • V-Money - Friday, September 23, 2011 - link

    ...if they are going to start offering a degree program to become a patent troll. Its a good thing I don't have kids, "Daddy, I want to be a patent troll" , 'Oh honey, why don't you pick a more respectable livelihood, such as prostitution or CEO of HP, you don't have to know what you are doing at either of those jobs to make money"

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