Giving An Allowance Patented: Acacia Sues Apple

from the giving-allowance-isn't-prior-art? dept

Acacia is a well known patent hoarder, who buys up or licenses various unused patents and sets up subsidiaries who do nothing but sue companies in the market who actually make products. The latest Acacia lawsuit has been filed against Apple for the "allowance" feature in iTunes that allows someone to transfer a dollar amount of iTunes credit to someone else -- effectively allowing a parent with a credit card to issue some "allowance" for a kid to purchase iTunes. You would think that such a concept wouldn't be patentable, given the history of parents giving kids an allowance -- but apparently the folks working in the patent office never received allowances as kids. The patent itself seems rather straightforward, but it's difficult to understand why such a thing is patentable in the first place. In the Teleflex v. KSR ruling the Supreme Court noted that the patent office shouldn't just approve patents on combining obvious ideas. Mixing the internet with allowances would seem to fall into that camp, though this patent was issued prior to the Supreme Court ruling.
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Filed Under: allowance, itunes, patents
Companies: acacia, apple


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  • identicon
    Denis, 13 Feb 2008 @ 9:50am

    Paycheck

    I should check about patenting the electronic paycheck. Since well, it's an idea that is already done and seems the PO is just giving prior ideas the go ahead.

    So, anyone who gets a paycheck electronically online have to divvy up some cash to me.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2008 @ 10:22am

    We need some checks and balances.. how about a supreme court for patents. They would be totally separate from the patent office and would only have the power to instantly revoke patents.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 13 Feb 2008 @ 10:49am

      Re:

      We need some checks and balances.. how about a supreme court for patents. They would be totally separate from the patent office and would only have the power to instantly revoke patents.

      Well, we already have CAFC, which is effectively a court for patent disputes... and the opposite occurred. Because it's focused on patents, former patent attorneys were appointed to it, and there's nothing most patent attorneys like more than more patents...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Vincent Clement, 13 Feb 2008 @ 11:04am

      Re:

      Or we can just eliminate patents and copyrights all together.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Killer_Tofu (profile), 13 Feb 2008 @ 10:46am

    Re #2

    That would be awesome. =D

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2008 @ 10:49am

    It's time someone patent sthe process of patenting and suing for profit.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2008 @ 10:55am

    Patent court

    Yeah, it's like tax court, which is effectively ran by the IRS. It needs, instead, to be set up in some fashion that is somewhat adversarial... like the executive/legislative/judicial branches of government.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    The Swiss Cheese Monster, 13 Feb 2008 @ 11:07am

    I love this line:

    "but apparently the folks working in the patent office never
    received allowances as kids."

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe Smith, 13 Feb 2008 @ 11:07am

    prior art

    Tuck money, gift cards and certificates, joint credit cards, prepaid credit cards, prepaid cell phones, prepaid calling cards ...

    A long long time ago ( one hundred years ), one of my forebears was a ne're do well whose parents sent money to a bank account far far away (six thousand miles) for him to go and live on when they decided to get rid of him. What difference between them depositing money to a foreign bank account to be drawn on by their son and me depositing money to an iTunes account to be drawn on by my son?

    What we really need is a program for sending patent trolls to jail.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      angry dude, 13 Feb 2008 @ 11:16am

      Re: prior art

      "What we really need is a program for sending patent trolls to jail."

      Right, little lemonade joe

      and the biggest patent troll extorting money from all over the place on a huge pile of (mostly) bullshit patents is what, joe ?

      IBM of course

      Why don't you propose a program of how to put all those crooked CEOs where they truly belong - behind bars
      Why it's only the little crooks you always worry about, Joe?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpass, 13 Feb 2008 @ 11:30am

        Re: Re: prior art

        "Why it's only the little crooks you always worry about, Joe?"

        Oh yes, Acacia is a "small" crook. Poor little guys, defending years of effort and research that went into their patents..

        Would you like to provide proof for IBM being a patent troll? They create a lot of patents through *gasp* actual research. IBM also has many patents that it doesn't use to use the crap out of other companies. While some of their patent litigation is questionable, they do have a lot of other positives to counterbalance at least, what does Acacia have?

        I am ok with you being angry, but why be stupid as well?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Joe Smith, 13 Feb 2008 @ 11:57am

        Re: Re: prior art

        Why it's only the little crooks you always worry about, Joe?

        A troll is a troll. I worry about them all. Litigation by Lotus (albeit based on copyright law) held back the competitive market place for spreadsheets for years. When Techdirt publishes an example of this type of shakedown by IBM, I will be happy to advocate imprisonment for their executives.

        I do think that the current state of the law has created an environment where companies like IBM are forced to file a patent as a defensive measure every time one of their scientists has a bowel movement.

        I do not want to feed your paranoia but you might think on the fact that we send people to jail for years for robbing a grocery store but no one from Wall Street has gone to jail for the sub-prime mess which involves six to eight orders of magnitude more money.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Patent Holder, 13 Feb 2008 @ 11:27am

    My Patent

    I hold the patent for reading techdirt. If I catch you reading techdirt, I'll sue

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    BlowURmindBowel, 13 Feb 2008 @ 12:20pm

    watch out!

    Watch it Joe, that dude looks pretty angry...

    (rotting hamsters in your bowel will do that to a person)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 13 Feb 2008 @ 6:28pm

    "Giving An Allowance Patented"

    What's next - milk 'n cookies ?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Emix, 13 Feb 2008 @ 7:09pm

    Simple solution..

    There is quite a simple solution to all these ridiculous patent/copyright lawsuits; have the plaintiff liable for the defendants lawyer fees, court fees and any damages brought on by the plaintiffs lawsuit if they lose. I’m sure a lot of these ridiculous lawsuits would come to a screeching halt and make people think twice before filing a ridiculous claim. The only people that would follow up and go all the way with them, are those that are actually being cheated and have a legit product for the patent/copyright.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      angry dude, 13 Feb 2008 @ 8:02pm

      Re: Simple solution..

      moron,

      All of those patent lawsuits are filed by corporations, usually LLCs or, in case of Acacia, it's a relatively large publicly-traded corporation

      Corporations and LLCs shield executives from personal liabilities
      Otherwise you would see a LOT of those crooked CEOs of large corporations kicked out of their mansions or worse, in jail

      I say go and do it dude
      I will gladly sacrifice my only patent for the benefit of humanity - just to see some of those CEO bastards follow Dennis Kozlovski path

      And BTW what you are proposing will directly lead to domination of a few largest market players
      patent lawsuit is a total crapshoot in the US, even with the perfectly valid patent
      Only the largest players can afford to absorb possible losses

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Feb 2008 @ 12:27pm

    Apple's Patent Applicatin

    If the idea isn't patentable, then why does Apple have a patent application pending on it? Why does Apple tout this feature as patent pending? See:

    http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2003/nov/06itunes.html

    And there is a sepecial patent review court. It's called the Federal Circuit.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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