A company called eSoft was recently granted a patent for "systems and methods for selecting, ordering, installing, managing, updating, and if necessary, uninstalling software applications." Their first step has been to sue their major competitors, but it appears that online software update systems of all kinds could be covered by this patent, which would mean that Windows
Update, OS X Software Update, Redhat's up2date, and YUM, among others, would be infringing.
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Member since:2005-08-18
"I can't blame this company for wanting to get this patent though"
Of course you can blame them. It's total unethical bullshit.
"They could end up putting their competitors out of business and extracting a bunch of money from a lot of big commercial software vendors for licenses."
So? That's like saying that anything is ok as long as you can make money.
Member since:2005-06-29
"Of course you can blame them. It's total unethical bullshit. "
You deserve to be modded up just for that.
Patents in general are total bullshit, only the rich can get anything out of the patent system because of the cost of legal battles, and it's a biased system with retards passing almost any patent without putting any mental effort behind it. I mean come on people, Microsoft got a patent for tabbed browsing long after Mozilla Firefox and Opera had implemented it, RIM got screwed over a patent on something as simple as wireless e-mail which the prosecuting company hadn't even implemented. Hey, there's even patents on stiff envelopes that stick out so CD's and small books can be put in them, just look up "bevelope". We're sabotaging our own industries and future here people!
Member since:2005-12-31
> "I can't blame this company for wanting to get this patent though"
> Of course you can blame them. It's total unethical bullshit.
So you blame them for not waiting until their competitors get that patent and sue them out of business?
It's the patent system which is to blame, not this company.
Member since:
1997-10-01
Problem is, the "exercise your cat" patent was done specifically to prove how silly the patent system has become. This one is serious. I can't blame this company for wanting to get this patent though. They could end up putting their competitors out of business and extracting a bunch of money from a lot of big commercial software vendors for licenses.