Earlier this year I stumbled on the peer-to-patent project www.peertopatent.org <http://www.peertopatent.org/> (via some news item, I think). I'd forgotten about it until this thread, but a search reveals that the idea has been around for a few years.
It's an interesting concept, supposedly to take some workload off the patents offices. I think what I saw originally was being trialled in Australia, and only recently (we seem to follow the worst trends of the USA, a few years later if we're lucky). Maybe it was on the IP Australia website www.ipaustralia.gov.au <http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au/> . Apparently some cross-comparison of issues was to occur. _____ Ian Thomas Victoria Park, Western Australia _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tiang Cheng Sent: Thursday, 20 May 2010 11:36 AM To: ozDotNet Subject: software patents...it's a sad life. :( "A computer-implemented system is designed to assist a merchant in setting up an electronic online storefront that is customized to the merchant's business, without requiring the merchant to program. The system employs a store builder wizard to guide a merchant through a series of questionnaires designed to extract information pertaining to the merchant's business. The system further employs a page generator to create active server pages (ASPs) that form the customized storefront." - Automated web site creation using template driven generation of <http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p= 1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,263,352.PN.&OS=PN/6,26 3,352&RS=PN/6,263,352> active server page applications (Patent link) Anyone written a application with those requirement specs? Time to pay up those royalties..(for me, that'ld be 4 or 5 times) Taken from: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2341-microsoft-patent-trolls-salesforce It's really is a sad state of affairs when you write a fantastic app, and run the risk of getting sued because someone thought of using template driven generation of automated web site creation. Given that I write .net code, it seems incredible that I Microsoft infringing IP for creating ASP pages. Tiang p.s. In this case it's Microsoft sueing someone, in others it's Microsoft being sued by others, so I'm not calling them out specifically. It's just the whole IP/Patent law thing
