Obama's Director Of Citizen Participation Patents Displaying News With Financial Info

from the participation-indeed dept

Mon, Feb 1st 2010 7:05pm — Mike Masnick

theodp writes "Ex-Googler and now White House Director of Citizen Participation Katie Stanton, who's charged with promoting open public dialogues, snagged a patent on displaying financial news Thursday with her former employer. The patent for Interactive Financial Charting and Related News Correlation (as seen on Google Finance), which Google explains is an invention designed to 'facilitate and encourage the user's use and understanding of financial information,' expires in the year 2027."

To be fair, Google has only been a defensive, rather than offensive, patenter, so I wouldn't read too much into this. However, it does seem a little ridiculous to patent the process of displaying news with financial information. It's a neat UI concept -- but deserving of monopoly protection for decades?

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Filed Under: displaying news, patents

17 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2010 @ 7:08pm

Err...haven't all the major financial newspaper/magazine websites (or financial websites in general) been doing this for years?
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- Doctor Strange, 1 Feb 2010 @ 9:04pm
  
  Re:
  Err...haven't all the major financial newspaper/magazine websites (or financial websites in general) been doing this for years?
  
  If you can demonstrate that they have "been doing this for years" (for all values of 'this' where 'this' is what's actually covered by the patent claims instead of an imprecise, hand-waving explanation of them, and for values of "years" including times prior to February 24, 2006) then you can invalidate the patent.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2010 @ 3:58am
    
    Re: Re:
    Financial news is nothing new and certainly is not deserving of a patent even if new. It's sad how our patent system is so broken as to assume that anything that hasn't been patented is somehow deserving of a patent.
    
    and don't assume that just because our broken patent office grants a patent it means that something has never been done before (ie: someone got a patent on swinging sideways on a swing and someone else got a patent on the wheel).
    
    Oh, and to overturn a patent costs resources (ie: time, lawyers, money), even if it's a bogus patent.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2010 @ 7:10pm

Isn't that adorable? Obama can now fire ten percent of his staff to synergize backward overflow.
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- Anonymous Coward, 1 Feb 2010 @ 7:55pm
  
  Re:
  Are you saying that President Obama may have a Director of Citizen Participation that holds a patent that has similar function to a multiple effect evaporator? If so, I imagine there is plenty of previous art in alternative fields of study.
  
  What's wrong with our patent system? Oh yes, people like Katie Stanton who are on the advisory committee.
  
  Sheesh.
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  - wvhillbilly, 2 Feb 2010 @ 1:54pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Ever heard of Jerome Lemelson? He was the grandaddy of all patent trolls. He would watch other firms developing their technology, patent it and then sue them for infringing his patent. He amassed a two billion dollar fortune doing that, though some of his patents were invalidated after he died.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 1 Feb 2010 @ 7:26pm

Yeaaaah
Defensive patents only increase the stakes for new startups (who don't hold 'defensive' patents.) That's about exactly the opposite of what the patent system is supposed to be about.

Oh, wait, I get it. These guys aren't any more concerned about me than the last guys. Well, good to know. I'll feel that much less guilty about my contraband activities.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2010 @ 1:04am
  
  Re: Yeaaaah
  You should never have felt guilt for doing anything you want to. It's none of their damn business.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2010 @ 1:08am

Has anyone pointed out that Google's do no evil founders have sold the majority stake in Google a few days ago? Google is a 100% capitalistic company now. The share holders have the power to replace the CEO and get someone litigious. in 20 years I'll bet you anything they have dozens of companies over a barrel with their massive arsenal of imaginary patents.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2010 @ 4:00am
  
  Re:
  "Google is a 100% capitalistic company now."
  
  Sorry, patents != capitalism. Patents == government granted monopoly != capitalism
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The Anti-Mike (profile), 2 Feb 2010 @ 6:01am

I think that this article is somewhat misleading, and points to Obama where the pointing isn't particularly valid.

The patent was filed February 24, 2006, almost 4 years before Obama was elected and likely about the same amount of time before Katie Stanton came on staff. The patent has nothing to do with Obama, it is something that would be mentioned in passing, not as the up front issue - unless you are trying to create an issue where none exists.

The patent isn't hers, it is assigned to Google, and was likely part of her "work product", along with the others listed. I suspect she will receive no benefit from the patent, not will she in any way control it.

The story reads more like another slap at Obama, rather than anything informative.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2010 @ 7:34am
  
  Re:
  More proof you only read the title of posts.
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  - The Anti-Mike (profile), 2 Feb 2010 @ 9:46am
    
    Re: Re:
    Keep going with the same old tired saw. It's no longer funny, just pathetic.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 3 Feb 2010 @ 6:20pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Sorry, I'll leave the unfunny pathetic comments to you from now on. You're much better at it.
      
      Of course, if you had actually read beyond the title, which you didn't, you would see that Obama is mentioned exactly 0 times beyond the title, and that the post focuses on Google.
      
      But don't let your inability to read more than a few words before going on your predictable rants stop you from trying to make a point where none exists.
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- The Groove Tiger (profile), 2 Feb 2010 @ 8:30am
  
  Re:
  I think the name of this website is somewhat misleading. It should be called "Techwater", because dirt is a type of water.
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Chris Maresca (profile), 2 Feb 2010 @ 11:23am

Er, Bloomberg?
This is what Bloomberg and Reuters terminals have been doing for, oh, 20 years or more....

http://www.moaf.org/exhibits/financial_markets/exhibit_pics/Bloombergterminalweb.jpg
ht tp://www.kalliwoda.net/bilder/TMY_04_09_2006_sg550053.gif

And this classic
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/files/bank_jamaica.JPG
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2010 @ 5:04pm

The fact that this is even patentable (real word?) screams loudly about the state that IP laws in the US (and the world in general) are in.
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