Les brevets sur les logiciels et leur danger pour le shareware

Europe Shareware software patents newsletter #4
19 May 2003

Webpage: http://www.europe-shareware.org/pages/brevets.fr.html



CONTENTS:

1. Palm sued over wireless gaming patent

2. Patent infringement legal assault on Sony

3. "An Empirical Look at Software Patents" by J. Bessen & R. M. Hunt




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1. Palm sued over wireless gaming patent

Peer-to-Peer Systems brought a lawsuit against Palm, claiming that the
ability of Palm PDAs to network wirelessly with other such devices on an
ad hoc basis was infringing their US Patent number 5,618,045.

See:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/29999.html


Here's the patent's abstract:  

  � An interactive multiple player game system including at least 
    two playing devices communicating over an ad-hoc, wireless, 
    all-to-all broadcast network. A playing device includes a 
    processor for running a game scenario common to all of the 
    playing devices within the network, a player controlled 
    interface for enabling a player action within the game 
    scenario, a transmitter for transmitting the player action 
    over the network, a receiver for receiving player actions 
    from other playing devices transmitting over the network, 
    and a display for displaying at least a portion of the game 
    scenario. The interactive multiple player game system can 
    further include a play station device and an interface 
    apparatus for. interfacing between the play station device 
    and the playing devices. �

That is to say you violate the patent if you connect at least two devices
over a wireless LAN and play a multiplayer game. 



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2. Patent infringement legal assault on Sony 

St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants Inc. (a five persons company
made of lawyers) sued Sony claiming that the company's cameras infringe
on four patents dating back to as long ago as 1992. The four patents
cover such basic features found in every digital camera such as memory
format initialization or PC compatible digital format output.

St Clair won the case and obtained USD 25 million from Sony (St Clair
asked first USD 171.4 millions).


The Detroit News Technology article:
http://www.detnews.com/2003/technology/0302/26/technology-94454.htm

The Imaging Ressource article:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1049271910.html

A few quotes from the Imaging Ressource article:

  � Sony was the second company to sign a license with 
    Forgent [note: for the JPEG Patent], and the number 
    of cameras it sells coupled with the fact it agreed 
    relatively quickly to pay for a license may have made 
    it a target for other companies looking to turn a 
    quick profit on old patents they had been granted or 
    purchased. �

  � There can be little doubt that the practice of patent 
    speculation leaves a bad taste in consumer's mouths. 
    Large corporations will often quickly settle cases 
    because it can be cheaper than protracted legal 
    battles, and this can encourage a certain type of 
    company to dig through its patent portfolios 
    searching for patents that might be seen to cover 
    technology used in a product they had no part in 
    creating. �

  � In the meantime, corporations will continue to fight 
    such cases only when it is likely to save them money, 
    and either way the costs of licensing patents or 
    fighting in the courts will be handed to the consumer 
    in the form of more expensive end products. �


A few quotes from the Imerge Consulting Group press release:

  � According to Imerge Consulting Group's principal 
    analyst, Ron Tussy, "this lawsuit is similar to 
    out-of-court settlements reached by Forgent Networks 
    and Dallas based law firm, Jenkens & Gilchrist 
    regarding JPEG coding and decoding in which Sony paid 
    $16 million USD just to get rid of it rather than fight 
    it in the courts. Other vendors also have settled with 
    Forgent in the past year and rest assured, RK & C will 
    come knocking on the same Japanese and Taiwanese 
    vendors' doors in the near future seeking out-of-court 
    settlements worth millions of dollars with this very 
    important precedent now established." �

  � According to analyst Tussy, "clearly a Sony verdict 
    and settlement was sought first because of their market 
    position in the industry, but also because Sony has shown 
    a propensity to settle rather than fight as they have 
    proved with the Forgent issue. The problem with Sony's 
    settlement is that it sets a precedent now with all other 
    vendors who may have tried to pool resources together to 
    fight this suit. We have heard that similar pooling of 
    legal funds is now taking place regarding the Forgent 
    issue. Sony missed their opportunity to rebuke this in 
    court and now it will negatively effect the businesses 
    of all other camera vendors." �



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3. "An Empirical Look at Software Patents" by J. Bessen & R. M. Hunt

Economists J. Bessen (MIT) and R. M. Hunt (Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia) just released their empirical study on the impact of
software patents on innovation and competition.

With the study written on behalf of the Fraunhofer Institute by german
economist K. Blind, this study is the only one really using empirical
data to show the impact (negative impact) that software patents have on
innovation.

See:
http://www.researchoninnovation.org/swpat.pdf


Here's the abstract:
  � U.S. legal changes have made it easier to obtain 
    patents on inventions that use software. Software 
    patents now comprise 15% of all patents. Compared 
    with other patents, software patents are more 
    likely to be owned by large U.S. firms. Most are 
    assigned to manufacturing firms; only 6% belong to 
    software publishers. Our regression analysis finds 
    that software patents have become a cheap form of 
    appropriability. This cost advantage, not the 
    profitability of software, accounts for most of 
    their increased use. Also, software patents 
    substitute for firm R&D rather than complement it. 
    Their use is associated with substantially lower R&D 
    intensity, consistent with strategic "patent thicket" 
    behavior. �

 

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