Xerox Corp has sued Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, accusing them of infringing the document management company’s patents related to Internet search. In a lawsuit filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, Xerox said Google’s Web-based services such as Google Maps, YouTube and AdSense advertising software, as well as Web tools including Yahoo Shopping, infringe patents granted as far back as 2001. Xerox seeks compensation for past infringement and asked the court to halt the companies from further using the technology.
I think software patents, and perhaps even the whole patent system itself, is about to go Nucular!
I sure hope so.
My guess is that it’s going to happen when enough giant companies experience more pain than benefit from software patents.
I can hope for it, but I don’t dare to predict when (or even if) that pain threshold will be crossed.
They should sue Apple, Microsoft, Canonical for infringement in their user interfaces. The funny thing is that Xerox invented so much stuff in CS, you don’t really think very long about.
it almost seems like this is a result of them realizing how much they let slip away in the early days, like they let other companies use so much of their UI innovations that they have to make up for it with extra patent evilness now
I don’t think you can patent user interfaces. Imagine a world where every keyboard has a different key setup so that companies can avoid royalties. Apple and Sony tried to establish UI patents some time ago but the idea was shot down.
with all the patent apps going through these days we are going to run out of new things to patent, or at least the pace will slow. you can only come up with so many original ideas that don’t infringe (even a little) on someone else’s stuff. If we keep going at this rate we are going to wake up one morning, look out towards the horizon, and see a big white wall of nothing and silence.
person: “what’s that?!”
Me: “That? That’s noon tomorrow. Ya spent to much time working around all these patents to make the same thing, only different, that we used up all the creativity and new ideas there are.”
person: “so what do we do now?”
Me: “…ever see the movie road warrior?”
person: (just looks scared).
I am not against patents but i think there needs to be shorter durations on them and certain things (like basic functionality, or the human genome) should not be able to be patented.
company: “Hey! What are you doing?!”
Me: “I was about to go for a walk.”
company: “If you do you owe us 50$”
Me: “what?!”
company: “ya, we have a patent on bipedal motion pertaining to exercise”
Me: “…you’re joking right?”
company: “nope, why don’t you come over here and I will tell you about it, of course you would have to walk here, so it’s 50$ either way.”
Me: “Ok, I have a question though.”
company: “ok shoot.”
Me: “does your company own a patent for beating the crap out of someone and stealing their wallet?”
company: “umm …no, why?”
Me: “no reason, I’ll be right over…”
Edited 2010-02-24 21:11 UTC
As with so many other companies, they should have to prove that these patents are currently being used in corporate or public view, not just sitting in a folder in a file cabinet.
I’m all for protecting what you’ve done, but if you haven’t done anything with it, be quiet or say “Hey! I should have done something with that.”
Google maps infringes but Bing maps does not? Hmm. I wonder if Xerox and MS have a licensing deal involved here somewhere.