IBM Patents 'Paper Or Plastic'?
from the patent-examiners-apparently-don't-shop-much dept
Slashdot points us to the latest absurd patent to get approval from the USPTO. IBM has been granted a patent on the concept of storing your packaging preference information on your customer card. Yes, basically, the act of storing whether or not you like paper or plastic bags on your customer loyalty card is considered such an original idea that it deserves a monopoly.We've been having some debates over the last few days in the comments on the question of "obviousness." This patent hopefully demonstrates the point that many of us are trying to make. The defenders of the patent system will claim that this is a perfectly reasonable patent because no one has done it before (where's the prior art, etc?). But that doesn't get into whether or not this is actually obvious. Customer cards store all sorts of information. Should we give someone a patent on each and every one? The implementation isn't hard at all. If you were to ask your average (or, even below average) techie, how they would go about storing and retrieving such information, they would do so in an instant. It simply makes no sense to award a long-term monopoly on adding just another bit of info to your customer card. And, yet, that's the system we have these days.
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Filed Under: obviousness, paper, patents, plastic, point of sales
Companies: ibm
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TFO
Figures it's from IBM
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Re: TFO
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Re: Re: TFO
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Way to difficult
Since baggers don't generate revenue, I don't think many grocery stores are going to jump on this one.
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It's meaningless
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i'll crash the system!
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Re: i'll crash the system!
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Someone show these idiots
Show them, Congress, everybody how ineffective their review process is. Maybe (wishful thinking) someone, somewhere who can kick ass and take names will wake up and do something about it.
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Here's an idea...
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Defense
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What's next ?
Would you like fries with that ?
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bad news for intro to comp sci students
boolean paper_or_plastic;
bit of code in their homework
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The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Every new day must be one huge journey of adventure and joyeous discovery
"wow I can use either hand to hold my toothbrush"
"wait a minute - a little brush just for my teeth? wow"
"cool - using grass to cover dirt"
.....
These guys are so special - stop picking on them
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Please tell me
They did, right? Just because they could?
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English or Spanish?
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Re: English or Spanish?
> ATM card so that I don't have to choose a language every
> single time I use my card - I want English - just like
> last time, and the time before that and the hundreds of
> times before that! Now that would be a useful invention!
The guy who just stole your card might need instructions in Espanol.
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I do have to wonder, however, just how this subject matter fits into IBMs strategic development plan for its future products and services? My "gut" informs me a "fit" is highly unlikely, in which case I must ask the question "If it does not fit, then why was this application even filed in the first place?"
As an aside, the application was filed containing two distinct sets of claims, one set for a device and the other for a method. The device claims apparently are contained in another patent application that should shortly issue, so there will likely be more blog "fodder".
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Re:
There is no saying that this particular application was done as part of overall corporate strategy. I would bet that this actually came out of some IBM Global Services engagement. It is possible that the contract offered them bonuses or whatnot for any patentable "invention" developed during the project.
But that is simply a guess.
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Re: Re:
Many corporations have policies that reward inventors at various times during the process of reviewing a disclosure, determining if an application should be filed, and when an application matures into a patent. Monetary rewards are granted at various phases of the process. It is not at all unusual for applications to sometimes be filed simply to ensure that a deserving individual (if not for the instant invention, but for other good work) gets something over and above his/her salary. In some companies this is one of only a few ways for the engineering staff to even qualify for a monetary reward.
Sad...but much to often true.
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Paper vs plastic
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Then I can sue George Bush. I bet he has more money than me.
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Original 'invention
If this patent is valid, one assumes that even the original inventor of the information storing customer card would be infringing if they stored such information on a card. This clearly is not right since that undoubtedly, the original invention was intended to provide a means to store *any* customer related info on the card.
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