Let the Patent Arms Race begin

[paxmao]

I was reading this news related to a successful patent application from Wall Mart regarding the use of blockchain to manage power consumption mentioned in the Spanish forum thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4474499.0.

As strange as it may seem, I consider this as very bad news. It is again the Patent Wars in which companies that have no intention of developing a technology nor creating anything better for the world just use the legal system to, on one hand, damage the competition capriciously suing their rivals and, on the other, to kill the small competition that cannot even think of covering the legal costs of a process.

An excerpt from the linked blog:"A patent infringement lawsuit is a high-stakes battle with unpredictable results. For big, important products the damages could be enormous, and injunctions are possible. A permanent injunction on a key product in a market as large as the United States can be catastrophic. A successful patent lawsuit could give the winner market dominance."

To make it worse, patents that were used defensively in the 80's soon became a department that had revenue targets based on the mere extortion of the rivals by means of legal processes threats.
 

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[aleksej996]

Patent trolls will always exist. I even heard of some folks that apparently patented the idea of an app contacting a server to keep it's data.
Pretty idiotic, but it is a profitable business if you have no conscience.

Blockchain technology should be decentralized and permissionless anyway, so I don't see this as much of a problem.
If a government can stop a cryptocurrency then I don't think it should exist anyway, to be honest.

[paxmao]

Patent trolls will always exist. I even heard of some folks that apparently patented the idea of an app contacting a server to keep it's data.
Pretty idiotic, but it is a profitable business if you have no conscience.

Blockchain technology should be decentralized and permissionless anyway, so I don't see this as much of a problem.
If a government can stop a cryptocurrency then I don't think it should exist anyway, to be honest.

It stops a certain use of the technology, not cryptocurrencies. In this case the application of blockchain to power consumption optimisation. Any app or project that uses that "method" (is not even a real invention IMO) has to pay Wall Mart.

Is not as much as patent trolls as large companies that instead of using patents to promote innovation, they use them to prevent innovation.

[Piggy]

Fortunately you cannot claim any patent for things that are known at least or not innovative.

I didn't read the technological solution they plan to patent in detail, but maybe the patent concern more the way they are distributing the energy itself rather the way is getting paid with crypto? Because it doesn't sound like anything has not been known before imo.

[paxmao]

Fortunately you cannot claim any patent for things that are known at least or not innovative.

I didn't read the technological solution they plan to patent in detail, but maybe the patent concern more the way they are distributing the energy itself rather the way is getting paid with crypto? Because it doesn't sound like anything has not been known before imo.

The thing is that the patent has been granted according to the article. US patents are more flexible than European ones an allow patenting things that would surprise anyone. Apart from the difference of first to invent vs first to file there are quite a few differences between what constitutes innovation and can be patented. Typically methods can be patented in the US, like this one.

[angel55]

Fortunately you cannot claim any patent for things that are known at least or not innovative.
 

If the company has the funds they can bend the laws to their favor.  We saw what happened with Disney.  Mickey Mouse was slated to become public domain but then they go and change the laws in their favor.  Right now the copyright lengths are ridiculous and it's stagnating innovation and creativity.

[paxmao]

Fortunately you cannot claim any patent for things that are known at least or not innovative.
 

If the company has the funds they can bend the laws to their favor.  We saw what happened with Disney.  Mickey Mouse was slated to become public domain but then they go and change the laws in their favor.  Right now the copyright lengths are ridiculous and it's stagnating innovation and creativity.

True, after 50 years the rights were going to be freed and they managed to extend them. I wonder if you could do the same with Shakespeare´s texts.

[seoincorporation]

True, after 50 years the rights were going to be freed and they managed to extend them. I wonder if you could do the same with Shakespeare´s texts.

The problem with big companies getting patents have been stopping the development of many new techs for many years now. Some of them are even slowing down the progress, as this author says:
"Because it's the most depressing part of the patent system, and is actually hurting small companies trying to build innovative new businesses.

The problem is that the system allows companies to get patents to which they are not actually entitled.

And then use those patents to sue other companies who are actually working in that space!"

Thatś for this nice article: https://www.inc.com/nick-skillicorn/how-the-current-patent-system-actually-hurts-inventors.html

At the end of the day, all reside, once more, on the money you have. If you have enough money to pay for any idea you have and get the patent, then you will have a future by denouncing others, even if you have never put into practice your idea... that sucks.

[xtraelv]

That is where the Electronic frontier foundation has such an important  role.

The United States especially is pressing for tighter copyright and patent laws (as seen in the TPPA negotiations).

Patents are a scrounge on society. Creative Commons will create a much fairer society where it isn't a matter of who thought of it first and patented it first.

It will allow technological innovation and affordable life saving drugs.  There will be benefits for companies to collaborate and pool their skills.

May the best product win !