Acacia related new - Patent office to re-examine Eolas patent

Finally, some common sense from the PTO. I tell you, these broad patents and loose standards (ex: "business processes" patents) effectively reverse the original intent behind patent laws. These laws were originally meant to FOSTER cretivity and effort....not hamper it.

For those that don't like to read long text.

The patent office felt pressure from the internet community and ordered the re-examination of another controversial patent. It's not Acacia this time, but this is what can happen to Acacia if enough people work together.

I had posted the following earlier at FTP's Acacia FAQ:


For those who are more tuned to patent issues due to Acacia, you may have heard the news about Eolas winning a $531M judgement against Microsoft for infringing on their patent that involves the hahahahahading of programs within a program (ie. running flash, audio players, etc in a web page)

This patent severly affects the way the web was intended to be used, and so the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) filed a petition with USPTO on October 23 for re-examination of the patent given the prior art that they found, that was not presented in M$ court case.

From this article:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3969

"Apparently, the PTO responded to this request, saying "a substantial outcry from a widespread segment of the affected industry has essentially raised a question of patentability." This order, issued on October 30, reviewed the claims and declared that the prior art introduced by Berners-Lee and Raggett raised "a substantial new question of patentabity." The order, signed by Steve Kunin, Deputy Commissioner of the US PTO, called for a reexamination of all claims relating to the '906 patent. "

We can see that in 1 week's time, the re-examination request was granted... usually this process takes alot longer, but it does go to show how public outcry does work.

FightThePatent.com has a new PR person, a webmistress who is a journalist, and she has just finished the first Press Release. I am reviewing it now, and we will be making a push to get mainstream attention.

Filing a re-examination request with the USPTO over the Acacia issue is a plausible route as well....but there are 2 problems.

1) USPTO may hold off on the request due to pending litigation with current defendants, or may interject and the court case be put on hold until it's decision... could go either way.

2) It takes more than the $1,000 filing fee. You need patent attorneys and your prior art lined up to present to USPTO.

Invalidating patents directly with the USPTO is a major part of what Fight the Patent Foundation will do to fight against patent abuse.

It would save companies millions of dollars each year in frivilous litigation costs if bad patents were invalidated directly with USPTO, rather than waiting for a defendants to pay the expenses of invalidating the patent in the court system.

More patent infringement cases will becoming more in the news (it already has), and even more so when it enters into your own backyard.

The defendants currently fighting Acacia are dealing with the immediate short term problem. FTPF is looking at the long term...and if the goal is reached, it can become active in the short term.... but that's up to the proposed 2,500 webmasters that are concerned enough, and believe that FTPF as a solution, to be able to contribute a one-time pledge of $100.

If a mandate can be shown, that it gives me every bit of confidence that i can then form the non-profit (501c3) organization because a large group of webmasters would have said that they do want the right to run their businesses, free of any (bogus) patent claims.


Fight the Claims!

thank heaven! Did anybody see this article?
http://arstechnica.com/archive/news/1067879232.html

"The patent office granted a patent to a 7-year-old boy last year who claimed to have invented a new way to swing on a playground swing, though the boy's father said he does not intend to enforce it."

Pretty funny.

FIGHT THE PATENT!

and the acacia stock takes another tumble...