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RE: Judge rules in favor of Eolas

• To: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Subject: RE: Judge rules in favor of Eolas
• From: Frank <frank@t...>
• Date: 16 Jan 2004 14:28:42 -0500
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EE03F9F168@h...>
• Organization:
• References: <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EE03F9F168@h...>

On Fri, 2004-01-16 at 13:34, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> I didn't say wholesale infringement.  I said, ignoring 
> it altogether.  

I know you did. That's your current hobbyhorse, ridden in probably 25%
of your posts. A few years ago your hobbyhorse was 'enclosure of the
commons'. Patenting software is just such an enclosure. Why are you
surprised that the folks who used that commons from 1946 till 1995 or so
are resisting the bailiffs? If you're not surprised, you're being
disingenuous.

> It's ludicrous to shift all the blame 
> to the PTO when a judge is ruling.

You asked and I quoted and answered a general question about the patent
system. You don't get to jump back to the specific case just because you
don't like my answer.


>   Now, is it the case 
> that the patents are hard to evaluate?   Sure.  If one 
> isn't an expert with thirty or forty years experience, 
> it is tough to read documents in which the same thing 
> has been expressed fifty different ways because not 
> only are the researchers unaware of each other, each 
> company or 'inventor' keeps making up terms and 
> applying them to their own work as if it were novel.
> 

Hard or not, that is what the PTO is supposed to do. Whether they work
for the citizens/taxpayers or for the inventors, they are supposed to
make a reliable determination of whether or not something is a novel
invention. If this has become too hard to be reasonably done, then it's
time to consider returning the art and science of computer programming
to the commons. [FWIW, I initially supported the idea of software
patents. However the current situation is, to me, clearly worse than no
patents at all. The public is paying, but the money is going to lawyers,
not inventors, and potential inventors are much more afraid of being
sued than they ever were of being stolen from.]


> Quick Test:  
> 
> o What are inline links and what were they 
> called before that?  
> 
> o  Is <a href="" an innovation as some seem 
> to claim from time to time?
> 
> o  Who is Truly Donnovan and why should a 
> patent examiner care?
> 
> o  Are stylesheets for markup a web innovation, 
> and if not, who first applied them to the 
> hypermedia field?
> 
> What went around has come around.

You're making my point for me.

Frank

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  • RE: Judge rules in favor of Eolas
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>

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