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Les brevets sur les logiciels et leur danger pour le shareware
Europe Shareware software patents newsletter #13
5th february 2004
Webpage: http://www.europe-shareware.org/pages/brevets/brevets.fr.html
PDF : http://www.europe-shareware.org/pages/brevets/newsletter13.us.pdf
Archive: http://www.europe-shareware.org/pages/brevets/newsletter13.us.html
CONTENTS:
1. FFII challenges Amazon's gift ordering patent
2. Latest Eolas news
3. "TV pause" patent case
4. WWW domain naming system patented by a lawyer
5. E-Data sues european music download services
6. Microsoft file patents for the XML grammar of Word documents
7. MS gets patents on HDTV signal packing
8. Patent on paying open source developers
9. WLAN redirection patented
10. MS sued over image half-toning patent
11. Playing online games patented ?
12. European patent on video/audio on demand
13. Personalized e-mail links patent legitimated
14. Whiteboard patent gets legitimacy
15. Rockwell sues a licensing company
16. Does India introduce software patents ?
17. The patenting of software is a complete mess
18. Rash of costly US claims raises patent concerns
19. USA Today on software patents
20. International Herald Tribune on the software patents crisis
21. Wired on the "patent everything" ideology
----
1. FFII challenges Amazon's gift ordering patent
Patent : EP 927945
"Erneuter Einspruch gegen Amazons Geschenk-Patent"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/wst-26.01.04-000/
The european Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII)
challenges Amazon's gift ordering patent. This patent covers the fact of
ordering gifts via email and phone communications.
The flowers distributor Fleurop and Germany's Computer Acience
Association "Gesellschaft fur Informatik" untertake similar legal action
against Amazon's trivial patent.
More information :
FFII press release :
----
2. Latest Eolas news
"Eolas Browser Verdict Against Microsoft to Proceed Despite Patent Review"
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1437244,00.asp
Eolas wins against Microsoft in the "plugin" patent case.
A federal judge upholds the USD 521 million verdict against Microsoft
A few quotes :
« Judge James B. Zagel, in an order issued in
U.S. District Court in Chicago, found that
Microsoft had infringed on Eolas Technologies
Inc.'s patent on the embedding and invoking
of interactive applications, such as plug-ins
and applets, in Web browsers. »
« Zagel wrote that the reexamination was not
reason enough to delay his decision or the
appeals process and that such a delay would
more significantly hurt Eolas if the patent
ultimately remains valid. »
« Zagel also awarded Eolas prejudgment interest
totaling, as of Wednesday, $45 million. »
« Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said the
company is still reviewing Wednesday's
decisions to determine whether or not to
proceed with changes to IE. »
See also :
"Urteil gegen Microsoft wegen Web-Patent hat vorerst Bestand"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-15.01.04-004/
and
"Judge rules Microsoft infringed on Eolas patent"
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-5141318.html
"Microsoft holds off on Eolas-based tweaks"
http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5150346.html
Microsoft decided that it will not modify its Internet Explorer browser
until the end of its lawsuit with Eolas.
"Eolas Discussing Browser Patent With Linux Community"
http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3048,a=116554,00.asp
Thanks to its victory in Courts over Microsoft with its "plugin" patent,
Eolas is now looking for royalties among companies using open source software.
----
3. "TV pause" patent case
Patent : US 6,233,389
"Multimedia time warping system"
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?
Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/
srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,233,389.WKU.&OS=PN/6,233,389&RS=PN/6,233,389
"TiVo sues EchoStar over DVR features"
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7643098.htm?
template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
"TiVo verklagt EchoStar wegen Patentverletzung"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-06.01.04-003/
TiVO is using its Time Warp patent, which includes the method used to
allow viewers to record one program while watching another and the
storage format that supports advanced TrickPlay capabilities such as
pausing live television, rewinding and slow motion, to exclude
competitors from its market.
----
4. WWW domain naming system patented by a lawyer
Patent : US 6,671,714
"Method, apparatus and business system for online communications with
online and offline recipients"
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?
Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/
srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,671,714.WKU.&OS=PN/6,671,714&RS=PN/6,671,714
"USPTO grants Calif. lawyer patent over entire WWW naming scheme
How could Albert Einstein have ever been one of these cretins?"
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Jan/gee20040120023507.htm
A few quotes :
« The concept of domains and subdomains, as
well as the e-mail addresses associated with
them, has been around for a long time but
apparently has escaped being patented prior
to now. Meyer, a lawyer by trade, has
capitalized on that oversight, and as of
December 30, 2003, Meyer owns it. And now
he's using it where it'll do the most
good--in court. »
« On January 17, 2004, Meyer brought suit
against Internet heavyweights Network
Solutions, Inc. and Register.com, claiming
the two services are infringing upon Meyer's
newly-granted patent. »
« [...] such fights cost money, and if Meyer's
thinly-veiled extortion plot "requests" only
a small license fee, the registrars may
decide to pay him off and save themselves
the trouble. »
"Domain registrars sued over URL patent"
http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5141810.html
A few quotes :
« The patent covers the method of assigning
URLs and e-mail addresses of members of a
group such that the "@" sign is the dot in
the URL. For example, if a group used a
so-called third-level URL, www.john.smith.com,
the e-mail address would be john@smith.com. »
« In the complaint, Nizza Group specifically
indicates that Network Solutions and
Register.com are infringing the patent by
selling rights to URLs and e-mail addresses
under the .name domain. The .name domain is
called a third-level domain, because it uses
an extra dot, as in the case of
john.smith.name. »
"Network Solutions, Register.com Face Lawsuit "
http://thewhir.com/marketwatch/net011904.cfm
"Network Solutions und Register.com wegen Patentverletzung verklagt"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/tol-16.01.04-002/
----
5. E-Data sues european music download services
Patent : EP 0195098
"Patentstreit um Musik-Download in Europa beigelegt"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/bem-21.01.04-000/
A few quotes :
« Das US-Unternehmen E-Data hat die Beilegung
der europäischen Patentstreitigkeiten gegen
Microsoft, Tiscali, HMV-Group und On Demand
Distribution (OD2) bekannt gegeben. »
« Das Patent aus dem Jahr 1985 umfasst das
Herunterladen und Aufnehmen von Informationen
wie Musik von einem entfernten Computer auf
ein bewegliches Objekt wie CDs oder DVDs. »
"Einigung im Patentstreit um Musik-Download-Dienste"
http://www.golem.de/0401/29377.html
----
6. Microsoft file patents for the XML grammar of Word documents
Patent application : EP 1 376 387 A2
"Word-processing document stored in a single XML file"
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP1376387&CY=ch&LG=fr&DB=EPD
"Microsoft seeks XML-related patents"
http://news.com.com/2100-1013-5146581.html
A few quotes :
« Microsoft has applied for patents that could
prevent competing applications from processing
documents created with the latest version of
the software giant's Office program »
« ML capabilities have been one of the main
selling points for Office 2003. The patents
could create a barrier for competing software,
such as future versions of OpenOffice and
StarOffice, from working with Microsoft's XML
format. »
« [...] they could prevent future versions of
OpenOffice and StarOffice, its proprietary
sibling, from working with Microsoft's XML
format. »
"Microsofts heimliches XML-Patent"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/hps-23.01.04-000/
A few quotes :
« Wie weit die Errungenschaften, die Microsoft
in seinem Patentantrag beschreibt, andere
Office-Programme vom Gebrauch des Formats XML
abhalten, werden wohl die Patentanwälte klären
müssen. »
« Die Sprache WordML, Microsofts XML-Abart zum
Kodieren von Dokumenteneigenschaften, dürfte
aber nach einer Patenterteilung als
Speicherformat fremder Anwendungen tabu sein. »
----
7. MS gets patents on HDTV signal packing
Patents : US 6,510,177
US 6,683,980
"System and method for layered video coding enhancement"
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?
Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/
srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,510,177.WKU.&OS=PN/6,510,177&RS=PN/6,510,177
"System and method for compressing data"
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?
Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/
srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,683,980.WKU.&OS=PN/6,683,980&RS=PN/6,683,980
"New Patents Could Propel Microsoft's Digital Media "
www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3305461
A few quotes :
« Microsoft has just been awarded two United
States patents for a proprietary method of
packing a high-definition television signal
onto a hard drive »
« The patents propose breaking up a video
signal and storing it on a PC as two
bit-streams, one of which is a lower-resolution,
or "lossy" video sequence. The second is a
higher-resolution, or "supplemental" signal »
----
8. Patent on paying open source developers
Patent : US 6,658,642
"System, method and program product for software development"
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?u=/netahtml/
srchnum.htm&Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p
=1&r=1&l=50&f=G&d=PALL&s1=6658642.WKU.&OS=PN/6658642&RS=PN/6658642
"IBM patents method for paying open source volunteers"
http://www.theinquirer.net/Default.aspx?article=13813
A few quotes :
« [...] gives examples such as open source
software development such as Linux as the
basis for its patent. »
« The patent says that selected module
programmers could earn money while those who
don't win might get a "pre-authorised" small
payment as an extra incentive. »
« Those payments, it continues, would be
awarded to developers that submitted letters
of intent and who submit modules that pass
the module tests but are not selected. »
----
9. WLAN redirection patented
Patent : US 6,636,894
"Systems and methods for redirecting users having transparent computer
access to a network using a gateway device having redirection capability"
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?
Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/search-
bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=ptxt&s1=Nomadix&OS=Nomadix&RS=Nomadix
"WLAN-Redirect bei Hotspots patentiert"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-27.01.04-008/
A few quotes :
« In der Patentbeschreibung heißt es, das
System enthalte ein Gateway für den Empfang
von Daten von Nutzern, die Zutritt zum
System wünschen. Dazu kommt eine
Nutzerdatenbank sowie ein AAA-Server
(Authentication, Authorization und
Accounting). Das System sei für die Nutzer
transparent. Sie könnten mit ihren tragbaren
Computern auf diese Weise in verschiedene
Netzwerke eingelassen werden, ohne die
Netzwerkeinstellungen ändern zu müssen. »
----
10. MS sued over image half-toning patent
Patents : US 5,726,772
US 5,708,518
US 5,543,941
US 5,477,305
US 5,341,228
US 5,111,310
EP 0560872
"Federal Judge Rules Against Microsoft In Ariz Patent Suit"
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/040128/1815001726_1.html
A few quotes :
« RCT alleges several Microsoft products,
including Windows 2000, Windows XP and Office
2003, infringe on patents for its half-toning
technique, which is a process used to display
and print digital images. »
« RCT, which owns the patents, filed similar
infringement lawsuits against Hewlett-Packard
Co. in 1999 and Seiko Epson Corp. in 2000.
Both cases were later settled and the printer
makers have taken licenses to the technology. »
"Windows und Office: Microsoft der Patentverletzung bezichtigt"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/44198
A few quotes :
« Sie hält ein Patent auf ein an der Universität
Rochester entwickeltes Verfahren namens Blue
Noise Mask »
« Eine Blue Noise Mask ist eine Art
Störungsprofil, das für jedes Ausgabegerät
optimiert und in dessen Treiber eingebaut
werden kann. Es soll Artefakte wie Rauschen
und Moirés unterdrücken und dennoch die
Geschwindigkeit beim Erzeugen der
Halbtonbilder nicht wesentlich
beeinträchtigen. »
----
11. Playing online games patented ?
Patents : US 5,823,879
US 6,183,366
US 6,264,560
"Wow, someone has patented playing online games?!"
http://www.scwatch.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=16
Nayantara Studios says it received a letter where Sheldon Goldberg is
claiming that he has patents on onling gaming.
A few quotes :
« claim 92 of the '560 Patent covers the playing
of a game over a communication network, such
as the Internet, where multiple instances of
a game are transmitted over the Internet
between multiple players and a gaming website
and some of these instances may overlap in
time. Also, users' rankings may be
transmitted from the gaming website to the
users, where the rankings are indicative of
the users' proficiency in playing the game
for which the users' ranks are being
displayed, and where the rankings are
updated. »
----
12. European patent on video/audio on demand
Patent : EP 1 335 601
http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP1335601
"Streaming-Spezialist Acacia erwirbt europäisches Patent"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/anw-14.01.04-008/
Acacia managed to have its famous "Digital Media Transmission" patent
granted in Europe. It claims that already more than 114 companies have
already licensed its patent.
A few quotes :
« Digital Media Transmission ist bedeutend für
Audio- und Video-on-demand über Internet,
Kabel, Satellit und drahtlose Systeme. »
« Bisher haben laut Acacia 114 Unternehmen die
Technik lizenziert. »
----
13. Personalized e-mail links patent legitimated
"EBay settles patent suit with Tumbleweed"
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/01/07/
ebay_settles_patent_suit_with_tumbleweed/
By settling with Tumbleweed and paying license fees, Ebay does the worst
for the e-commerce sector : it legitimates Tumbleweed's patent over
personalized e-mail links.
A few quotes :
« Tumbleweed, a tiny software company with less
than $50 million in annual revenue, previously
has used the same patent claim to obtain
licensing agreements with several other
companies, including Hallmark and American
Greeting »
"eBay einigt sich mit Tumbleweed in Patentstreit"
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/akr-06.01.04-000/
----
14. Whiteboard patent gets legitimacy
Patent : US 5,206,934,
"Microsoft settles in whiteboard patent dustup"
http://news.com.com/2100-1014-5133588.html
Microsoft prefers to pays USD 60 millions in license fees than to
invalidate the Whiteboard patent.
----
15. Rockwell sues a licensing company
"Returning Fire"
http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?
c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1039054478800
Rockwell decided last december to sue a company with no products but
solely in the business of licensing patents that sued its customers
thanks to a software patent.
A few quotes :
« Niro Scavone and its clients contend that
Rockwell's technology infringes a patent on
a method of controlling factory production
processes. »
« Rather than suing Rockwell for infringement,
Solaia [...] has sued Rockwell's customers.
The customers include Clorox Co. Inc.,
Boeing Co., Eastman Kodak Co., Eli Lilly and
Co., General Dynamics Corp., Shell Oil Co.
and Tyco International Inc., among others. »
« The patent at issue relates to methods of
communicating information between a network
of programmable logic controllers and a
personal computer. »
« From 1994 through July 2001, name partner
Raymond Niro Sr. won 20 multimillion-dollar
jury verdicts in a row, which garnered more
than $400 million for his clients. Niro's
fee generally ranges from 35 percent to 45
percent of gross revenues. »
----
16. Does India introduce software patents ?
"Patents (Amendment) Bill introduced "
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/12/23/stories/2003122301230400.htm
----
17. The patenting of software is a complete mess
"
Charles Arthur: The patenting of software is a complete mess and
discourages innovation"
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=478647&host=3&dir=86
A few quotes :
« who's most likely to take out patents? The big
organisations, which can afford the research
and the patent lawyers to draw them up. They
can use these to attack upstart rivals,
claiming that they infringe their patents,
and sue them to death. »
« And patenting software - pure software -
suffers from the problem of abstraction. What
exactly do you leave out of the patent? Your
patented implementation needs to run on a
computer. What computer? Running what
software? Does it rely on the software to
work? In which case, must you also be able
to patent the software that it needs, too? »
« One starts to wonder whether, if Amazon had
built One-Click (which it applied for as
"A Method and System for Placing a Purchase
Order Via a Communications Network") on top
of Microsoft software, it would need to
specify that Microsoft product in the patent.
If so, rivals could implement One-Click
without infringing the patent by using
different software. In other words, patenting
software is a complete mess; what's more, it
discourages innovation - being able to copy
an idea and use it again yourself - the purest
form of intellectual bootstrapping - will make
any useful technology spread at dramatic
speed. »
----
18. Rash of costly US claims raises patent concerns
"Rash of costly US claims raises patent concerns"
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=94622004
A few quotes :
« there is still a swathe of patents that are
viewed as being a licence to print money.
Although not all lawsuits are successful,
defending a patent infringement case can divert
a company's attention from its core business
and cost significant amounts - EBay is reputed
to have spent around $10m on fighting business
method patent lawsuits. »
« Historically, European states have been
unwilling to grant patents for ideas or
business processes, but the proposed Directive
on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented
Inventions would allow for greater
patentability - and this has caused uproar,
particularly in the software industry. »
« A final position is yet to be agreed, but the
proposed directive could mean there being
differing protections available for the same
ideas in Europe and the US. »
« The rise in litigation should concern us all
as consumers will ultimately pay the costs of
the giants doing battle with patent owners,
thanks to the lax system employed by the US. »
----
19. USA Today on software patents
"Patents out of control?"
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-01-13-patentscover_x.htm
A few quotes :
« PanIP and others have shaken up the Internet
industry recently by demanding -- and often
getting -- license fees from mostly small
e-commerce companies after brandishing
patents on everything from video streaming to
Web browsing. The companies say they were
targeted because they can't afford to defend
themselves in court. »
« But patent lawsuits are a growing annoyance
even for giants such as Intel and Microsoft.
Industry and government officials say the
lawsuits are but one symptom of a patent
system gone haywire, especially in technical
fields such as computers, software and
biotechnology. »
« The furor has been rekindled by a dot-com
bust that left hundreds of companies with no
assets other than their patents, many of which
were scooped up by specialized firms whose
sole business is to seek patent royalties.
The issue has become serious enough to
discourage some small software and biotech
firms from innovating for fear of being sued. »
« But even giants such as Intel bemoan a system
they say forces them to use big chunks of
research budgets to stockpile patents just to
use for cross-licensing when other patent
holders threaten them. »
« Critics also say patents are not needed to
spark software innovation. They say that
unlike pharmaceuticals, for example,
development costs are low and product life
cycles are short. »
« If you didn't have any patents at all, people
would still be doing the same stuff because
of the speed of the marketplace," says
Jordan Greenhall, CEO of DivX, a
video-download software maker.
In fact, Greenhall says patents discourage
innovation. DivX two years ago developed the
first practical electronic ID, or "watermark,"
to track TV shows distributed by pirates on
the Web. But he dropped the project after
getting a patent royalty request. "I said,
'I'm not sure of the demand (for the product).
I'm pulling out.' " »
« In the PanIP case, the company claimed patents
granted in the 1980s on automated credit
checks and virtually any computer exchange of
data involving "textual and graphical
information." Co-owner Lawrence Lockwood last
year sued 50 small e-commerce companies. Many
settled for one-time fees of less than $30,000
rather than run up legal bills. »
« Critics say a new breed that simply collects
royalties owns many of the new Web patents.
"It doesn't contribute anything to the
economy," Banner says. »
----
20. International Herald Tribune on the software patents crisis
"Europe's tug of war over software patents"
http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?
template=articleprint.tmplh&ArticleId=127600
A few quotes :
« Opponents of patenting software include some
of Europe's most promising young technology
companies, such as the Norwegian browser
maker Opera and MySQL, a Swedish open-source
database company. They say software patents
kill innovation and point to studies that say
implementing them leads to less, rather than
more, research and development. »
« The current uncertainty hurts innovation, said
Hakon Wium Lie, chief technology officer of
Opera, which has received letters charging
that it has breached a variety of American
patents. "In most cases, our analysis concluded
that we were not in breach, but it was very
expensive for us to deal with this," he said.
If Europe also adopts software patents, he said
the problem would become much worse. "All in
all, software patents are good for lawyers, but
not software," Lie said. "We don't see how
patents will benefit us in any way." »
« At the end of last year, Sign On, a public
software company in Stockholm specializing in
electronic signatures and forms, was granted
patent rights to the process of securing the
transmission of electronically signed
documents via the Internet. The patent covers
as many as 27 European countries.
"Sign On's patent is so wide that it can
cover all secure ways of sending e-documents,
a process which is key for e-government and
other types of e-services," said Hans
Sundstrom, chief legal adviser of the
Statskontoret, a department of the Swedish
government that handles procurement contracts
for some 7 billion Swedish kroner, or $947
million, of information technology equipment
annually for various government agencies. »
« Europe has a chance to take a leadership role
by deciding that software should be treated
differently than other inventions, say
organizations such as the Munich-based
Foundation for a Free Information
Infrastructure. »
« Creighton [a venture capitalist] said she
had invested E2.5 million in Straakt, a
Swedish software company specializing in
procurement. Later, she learned about the
Sign On patent. "When that patent showed
up, it was, 'Good God, we are dead,'" she
said. »
----
21. Wired on the "patent everything" ideology
"The Eagle Is Grounded
While America works to protect intellectual property, everyone else is
innovating."
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/start_pr.html
A few quotes :
« Entire nations are making the leap to Linux.
Last year, China began installing the open
source operating system on 500,000 computers,
with perhaps 200 million more machines on the
way. That's bad for Microsoft but good for
Linux, as China's vast pool of programming
talent turns to developing the software
further. (As a monopoly, Microsoft has the
same market effect as a spurious patent or
overregulation - reducing innovation and
increasing prices.) »
« They reflect the gulf between IP owners, with
their rigid sense of controls, and those who
would seek to use that intellectual property
with all the flexibility afforded by
technology - the Internet, in particular. And
that's not just a difference of opinion, it's
a technological generation gap. As Intel chair
Andy Grove recently told The Washington Post,
the US needs to reassess its conception of
intellectual property "for an era that is the
information age as compared to the industrial
age." »
« But so far, IP owners are doing all they can
to lock in their old entitlements, pushing for
increasingly restrictive laws and enforcement. »
« The result: laughably broad patents [...] patents
awarded for software (even though it is already
protected by copyright law) »
« By taking a flexible approach to IP, companies
could capitalize on the next wave of innovation
rather than shirk from it. But wait too long
and this ship will have sailed. »
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