Searching For A Car With A Clean Title? Patented!
from the oh,-come-on dept
If you thought that the Supreme Court's Teleflex decision would have the Patent Office be a little more careful about awarding really obvious patents, apparently you'd be wrong. The EFF is highlighting a patent approved last week by the office. The patent was file by Carfax, and it basically describes the key element of Carfax's business: searching a database of used cars for ones with a clean title. Yes, that very thing is now patented. No, there's nothing even remotely new here. Basically, it's just a typical database search, but one that includes a flag for "clean title." Does this mean that any kind of specialty search is now patentable? With the recent news that location-based searches are patented as well, I imagine lots of other types of searches won't be far behind.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.
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Why not?
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Re: Why not?
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Ebay sued for "Buy it Now"?!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19195883/
I don't understand how you can patent the "Buy it Now" feature. This is such garbage.
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Re: Ebay sued for "Buy it Now"?!
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Re: Ebay sued for "Buy it Now"?!
We've covered that case in plenty of detail. This is nothing new right now. Just waiting for the decision. Once that comes out, we'll see if it's worth commenting on.
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Start sending me checks Mike!
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My billion dollar plan!
Sometimes I fear for the species...
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Re: My billion dollar plan!
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I'll Be Rich!
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Re: I'll Be Rich!
Edward Teach had prior art...
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My search patent
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Re: Re: My billion dollar plan!
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Re: Re: Re: My billion dollar plan!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: My billion dollar plan!
You'll probably get him under the doctrine of equivalents.
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Re: Re: Re: My billion dollar plan!
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And for my next patent,
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Hope for people with bad google records
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o_O
It seems like there's another USPTO story every day.
My head hurts.
So, who gets to play savior in this techmelodrama?
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