[FC-discuss] Eolas software patent decision
Ali Sternburg
They lost, despite having sued in the Eastern District of Texas, a federal district court famous for its patent-friendly judges and juries. It was partly because Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the acclaimed inventor of the Web, flew to Texas to testify in person.
Berners-Lee did not patent the Web. And the explosive growth of the Web was possible because anybody could use it without asking permission. The result has been massive parallel innovation. Had it been patented, everyone would have had to ask and perhaps pay for permission, including Eolas and the University of California.
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Ali Sternburg
978.758.7205
aliste...@gmail.com
Harvard College, Class of 2009
American University Washington College of Law, J.D. Candidate Class of 2012
Ben Finney
> They lost, despite having sued in the Eastern District of Texas, a federal
> district court famous for its patent-friendly judges and juries.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation rightly uses this debacle to point
out that, despite a not-insane decision in this particular instance,
this is not a good situation to have occurred:
That's the good news. The bad news: it came after the patents
already caused plenty of damage. Companies large and small have
taken licenses from Eolas rather than pay millions to fight in
court. Many, such as Tim Berners-Lee (who testified during trial),
warned about the dangers of the Eolas patents […]
We couldn't agree more, but let's go a step further. What the Eolas
patents make clear is that the system isn’t working. We’ve been
saying it for years, yet both Congress and the courts have failed to
fix the problem. In the now infamous Bilski case, the Supreme Court
gave the green light to business method patents, and, consequently,
to software patents. But the patent system, which is largely a
one-size-fits-all program, simply stops making sense when we start
to talk about software.
<URL:https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/why-patent-system-doesnt-play>
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\ “I moved into an all-electric house. I forgot and left the |
`\ porch light on all day. When I got home the front door wouldn't |
_o__) open.” —Steven Wright |
Ben Finney
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