That's the gist of it. It should point out how fucked up the patent system in the US is. Also, it was originally patented in 1992, and it's just now being legislated with.
What I imagine happened is some programmers at a now defunct company wanted to get their names on a patent because it's cool. They come up with the most generic algorithm ever, easily get it patented, and then they get to brag to their drinking buddies.
Then, the company they work for goes out of business/gets bought and the patent is transferred to a patent troll like this Bedrock company who then try to find where it 'infringes'.
That's all my imagination, but similar things have happened.
What I just learned with this article is the Bedrock company is no longer active...how can you win a case when you're not even an active company anymore!?
Note: I don't have a tremendous amount of sympathy for any large company like Google, Oracle, Apple, Amazon, etc. who get sued for silly patent 'infringements' because they would do the same in a heartbeat. ALL software patents should be abolished.
> I don't have a tremendous amount of sympathy for any large company like Google, Oracle, Apple, Amazon, etc. who get sued for silly patent 'infringements' because they would do the same in a heartbeat. ALL software patents should be abolished.
Apple is only 5 characters? Amazon doesn't end in "le"?
Oracle is the only one in the second half of the alphabet? Google is the only one whose name isn't also a thing? Apple is the only edible thing? Apple only has two vowels the others have three? Apple doesn't have an "o"?
20 years. It looks to me like this one was actually filed on 2 Jan 1997 and granted on 6 Apr 1999. [1]. I think the 1992 date came from on of the patents used as a reference in the application.
What I imagine happened is some programmers at a now defunct company wanted to get their names on a patent because it's cool. They come up with the most generic algorithm ever, easily get it patented, and then they get to brag to their drinking buddies.
Then, the company they work for goes out of business/gets bought and the patent is transferred to a patent troll like this Bedrock company who then try to find where it 'infringes'.
That's all my imagination, but similar things have happened.
What I just learned with this article is the Bedrock company is no longer active...how can you win a case when you're not even an active company anymore!?
Note: I don't have a tremendous amount of sympathy for any large company like Google, Oracle, Apple, Amazon, etc. who get sued for silly patent 'infringements' because they would do the same in a heartbeat. ALL software patents should be abolished.