joemullin

4 ms·

1.
by joemullin 3y ago
I'm aware that there are allegedly "bad" IPRs including the OpenSky case. The alleged "extortion" here is that VLSI, a non-practicing entity, I believe backed by a hedge fund, would lose their 20-year government mon
2.
by joemullin 3y ago
I work for EFF and wrote the text of this blog post and action. On here I speak only for myself, but a couple points I want to add. 1) EFF has only filed one IPR ever, (linked in the post), against Personal Audio, to invalidate a patent ass
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by joemullin 3y ago
Can you point me to the government grant program that requires patents as part of the application process? That is potentially very concerning. I would be interested to learn more.
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by joemullin 5y ago
The "invention" is DRM. You think Apple read this patent and said "a-ha, that's how you do it?"
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by joemullin 5y ago
Many internet companies, including Google, have used patents only defensively (so far). However, there are plenty of tech companies that do assert patents offensively, including Apple, IBM, Qualcomm (famously), Oracle, and lots of others.
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by joemullin 5y ago
I'm the author of the above piece. I'm a bit late to the party here, but really appreciate the conversation——it's my first time on this site as a solo blogger (former Ars Technica writer). For those that found this interestin
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by joemullin 5y ago
This is the party line, but it just isn't true. Patents are obtained & enforced on ideas all the time, especially in software. PMC is enforcing a patent on the idea of DRM, on the idea of error-correction in streaming video. Th
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by joemullin 5y ago
I agree that patent abuse and IP abuse extends beyond trolls. That's one of the reasons I started Letters Patent -- and that's why I linked to Cory Doctorow's piece outlining Apple's long history of IP abuse.