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To play devil's advocate here, if this patent really can't be worked around reasonably, than this may be, finally, an example of a software patent that is valid
by dpcan 15y ago
To play devil's advocate here, if this patent really can't be worked around reasonably, than this may be, finally, an example of a software patent that is valid and worthy of a patent because it is a true and novel invention.
- foob 15y agoIf the patents can't be worked around reasonably then it could just as easily mean that the patents are so broad and superficial that nearly any approach, whether common sense or not, would violate them. I haven't read the full patents, so I don't have a real opinion yet, but from what I know about software patents in general my explanation would surprise me less than yours.
- dpcan 15y agoYes, you are absolutely correct, I was only making a statement from one angle. It's too late now, but if I could edit my statement, I would like to point out that the patent could be valid assuming it was very SPECIFIC in its claims, and not just a broad patent which would mean that the single unique invention was so brilliant that it was the one and true path to the end product.
- kragen 15y agoWell, there are lots of ways that an invention could be unworthy of a patent. Being one of many equally good solutions to a problem might be one, depending on your beliefs, and that seems to be the one you have in mind. But it could also, for example, be an obvious combination of existing inventions (say, combining a payment-processing system with a 3-D printer) or indeed something already known in the prior art.
- cualunque 15y agoOr the claim is so vague that there's no way you can escape it.
- regularfry 15y agoIf a patent cannot be worked around, and any engineer coming up against the same technical challenge would have to solve it in the same way, then that is a discovery, not an invention, and intrinsically not a valid patent.