Spinvox Tries To Patent Dictation?

from the um,-seriously? dept

Over the years I've heard of a few different companies that have done variations on what Spinvox appears to be doing: using a combination of both speech recognition and cheap offshore labor to convert audio voicemail messages into text. But, Mark alerts us that Spinvox is trying to patent the process of using humans to transcribe messages (you can see the patent application here). It seems pretty ridiculous that the concept of transcribing a voicemail message could get a patent -- and one hopes that such a patent no longer has any chance under the current Bilski rules, but you never know. It's quite telling, though, how the company responds when asked about the patent:
"Generic patents help us build different combinations -- i.e.: Humans interacting with machines -- to prevent any other companies doing similar things in the long term."
In other words, they're blatantly admitting it's got nothing at all to do with actually innovating, but getting enough of a patent thicket to have different combinations that prevent anyone else from doing things.

Separately, it's a bit odd, but mixed in at the end of the BBC article is a small highlight of one potential problem with using humans to transcribe voicemails: some of the Pakistani transcribers apparently haven't been paid by Spinvox, and attached a message to one of the transcriptions, telling the recipient of their plight and asking for help.
Hide this

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

Filed Under: dictation, patents
Companies: spinvox


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Petréa Mitchell, 31 Jul 2009 @ 1:17pm

    Oh, it's *way* worse than that

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    yozoo, 31 Jul 2009 @ 1:27pm

    They Think Small Time

    they should try to patent the parts, imagine how valuable a patent on "using a phone to listen" and "using a keyboard to type" would be.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    TXCHLInstructor (profile), 31 Jul 2009 @ 1:51pm

    Oh, that's truly rich!

    "some of the Pakistani transcribers apparently haven't been paid by Spinvox, and attached a message to one of the transcriptions, telling the recipient of their plight and asking for help."

    Poetic justice. That's just rich.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Yakko Warner, 31 Jul 2009 @ 2:21pm

    Re: Oh, that's truly rich!

    Just wait until I sue them for infringing on my patent for using unpaid slave labor in foreign countries as a method for reducing employment costs. They won't get away with this!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Dark Helmet (profile), 31 Jul 2009 @ 2:23pm

    C'mon Mike

    "some of the Pakistani transcribers apparently haven't been paid by Spinvox, and attached a message to one of the transcriptions, telling the recipient of their plight and asking for help."

    C'mon, be fair. You know the only reason they haven't been paid is because, unfortunately for Spinvox, someone ELSE owns the method patent "exchanging money on a regular basis, but not too much money, in order for brown people to pretty much do all the work and let us get rich"....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2009 @ 2:39pm

    Uhm... don't courts have a teller that types up the cases s/he hears into transcripts? So the idea has prior art.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    drkkgt (profile), 31 Jul 2009 @ 2:41pm

    Wow, the patent they just got in May for the Method of managing voicemails from a mobile telephone has a great line it it.

    This presents several challenges to the user: first, he may not have a pen and paper to hand to take down any important information; secondly, he may forget or not be able to hear the options and hence will be unable to operate the voicemail system effectively.
    Because of this inadequate and opaque interface, voicemail is not used by at least 45% of mobile telephone users. Of those that do use voicemail, it typically accounts for 30% of a user's call time and spend. One of the reasons for this perhaps surprisingly high level is that, because of the difficult interface, users frequently dial in again just to listen to key voice messages they did not get the details of the first time round.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    drkkgt (profile), 31 Jul 2009 @ 2:43pm

    Re:

    oh wait, they repeat the same thing in the new one listed in Mike's article.

    Oh and thanks for the link to the register Petréa, good article.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymouse, 31 Jul 2009 @ 2:48pm

    Re:

    The court stenographer records the proceedings.
    Later the stenographic record is converted to
    text.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    anon and on, 31 Jul 2009 @ 4:27pm

    my favorite tidbit about this amazing company is how their marketing materials call their voice-to-text conversion system (which utilizes thousands of human agents in developing countries) by two names, ""The Brain" and a space age "D2". Then you find out that D2 stands for DD, the co-founder Daniel Doulton.

    More fun reading here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1202185/Pay-cut-SpinVox-phone-text-tycoons-told.html

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2009 @ 5:24pm

    Re: Re:

    Exactly. So the idea has prior art.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2009 @ 5:29pm

    Re:

    "Because of this inadequate and opaque interface, voicemail is not used by at least 45% of mobile telephone users."

    Uhm... I would say voicemail is not used because people don't leave voicemails. They use text messaging instead. If someone sent me a voice mail I would listen to it but none of the inconveniences you mention apply to the person sending the voice mail. I argue that most people would listen to their voice mail if they received one and they do listen to the voice mails they receive.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2009 @ 5:39pm

    Re: Re:

    Just like with answering machines. When answering machines first came out people used them a lot. People would always leave messages on answering machines. Now, thanks to cell phones, no one bothers with answering machines anymore. This house has no answering machine except for the one that is built into the cordless phone unit only because the unit just so happen to have a built in answering machine. It's never used. Someone needs me they call my cell phone. I never leave messages on answering machines anymore, just call their cell phone.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    CleverName, 31 Jul 2009 @ 6:03pm

    Closed Captioning

    There is a large business segment that already does this sort of thing and has been doing it for quite some time.

    This Spinvox patent is stupid.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 31 Jul 2009 @ 6:36pm

    Re: Closed Captioning

    There you go, prior art.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Aug 2009 @ 1:15pm

    Re: Re: Closed Captioning

    There you go, prior art.

    So? It's not like you can just send an example of prior art to the USPTO and have a patent automatically invalidated. Oh no, it requires much more than that, starting with lawyers and money.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.