Where Do They Come Up With These Patents?
from the please,-make-it-stop dept
Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a day go by without one of these silly patent cases where a "company" (usually consisting of one or two lawyers) gets a patent on something that shouldn't be patentable, doesn't do anything with the patent, and then sues companies that are doing something similar? How is it possibly a "patentable" idea to take the domain name john.smith.name and assign the user an email address john@smith.name? Why is that something that should be patented? Apparently, though, it is patentable, and because of that, Network Solutions and Register.com are being sued. Of course, it's Global Name Registry that runs the .name registry - so it's not entirely clear as to why the suit is focused on the other two players (except, of course, that they probably have a lot more money). I'm curious if someone can explain to me how this patent (and the resulting lawsuit) encourages "innovation"?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
The whole patent office should be lined up against a wall and shot.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What we really need
If you were fined instead of just losing the patent, maybe some of these things never would have been applied for.
BTW, why is it that Congress seems so uninterested in this?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]