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You're right that they technically patented some narrow thing, and that they're trying to avoid limiting the scope of their patent. I am well aware of the fact

by Natsu 12y ago

You're right that they technically patented some narrow thing, and that they're trying to avoid limiting the scope of their patent. I am well aware of the fact that a design patent is a separate class of thing, I brought it up because it shows how lawyers being too good at avoiding limitations is a large part of the unreasonableness. When you get right down to it, you can see where they end up demanding hundreds of millions over ridiculous trivialities because triviality is too subjective and they'd rather have a bright line in a stupid place. Having watched the motion practice for how these actually play out in court, however, I know how they can dance around all the limitations to the point where "they didn't actually patent taking photos on a white background" becomes academic. At least this is how it plays out in the US. It's possible that other countries have a saner patent system and I would rather like to believe that, but I do not claim much familiarity with how patents are used outside the US.

axman6 12y ago
The patent system in the US is definitely very sick, and much more open to abuse than elsewhere in my experience. There should be much greater penaqlties for entities who sue and lose, and also the first action in any patent cqase should be the deep assessment of the patent's validity (in the US, the doctrine is that the patent office got it right and the patent is valid). If it were a matter of contract law, the contract would have to be found valid before continuing with any prosecution, but not wiuth the social contract probided by a patent. Someone being sued has a much greater imputus to find relevant prior art than the patent office (not that the office doesn't want to find it, they just don't have time to go the lengths that might sometimes be required). There also seems to be a lot of common sense missing in the US system (and US law in general).

by Natsu 12y ago

axman6 12y ago

The patent system in the US is definitely very sick, and much more open to abuse than elsewhere in my experience. There should be much greater penaqlties for entities who sue and lose, and also the first action in any patent cqase should be the deep assessment of the patent's validity (in the US, the doctrine is that the patent office got it right and the patent is valid). If it were a matter of contract law, the contract would have to be found valid before continuing with any prosecution, but not wiuth the social contract probided by a patent. Someone being sued has a much greater imputus to find relevant prior art than the patent office (not that the office doesn't want to find it, they just don't have time to go the lengths that might sometimes be required). There also seems to be a lot of common sense missing in the US system (and US law in general).