nooooo...

[trorion]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn5072

Ok, so does this mean I now have to pay Microsoft a patent fee every time I shut down my desktop by pushing and holding my power button?

Summary of article: Microsoft has patented the concept of pushing buttons in different ways to get different results (push and hold =X while pushing twice = Y)

[rcmiv]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn5072

Ok, so does this mean I now have to pay Microsoft a patent fee every time I shut down my desktop by pushing and holding my power button?

Summary of article: Microsoft has patented the concept of pushing buttons in different ways to get different results (push and hold =X while pushing twice = Y)

I think your power button is safe, but try to develop an open source application launcher or suchlike for use on a PDA. Make sure it doesn't use "clicking" of any kind.

What a crock. The patent system is broken. The copyright system as well. Both are valuable, important, and badly in need of reform.

Software patents are double bs.

From the article:

"These are symptoms of the fact that the patent system is not well-adapted to being applied to software," says Jonas Maebe, of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, and a computer scientist at the University of Ghent in Belgium.

-rcmiv

[ispmarin]

They are on a campaign to get all the patents they could, even the craziest one. And Balmer said that they think about starting to sue linux developers...

[nickle]

patenting physical movements such as /single/double/tripple long short/long clicks is like patenting farting... man what will these ***holes think of next....

[Sirin]

Heh, then let's get the patent for single clicking! KDE will be proud!

[ispmarin]

Why not just patenting the combination CPU+Monitor+keyboard+mouse??

[ispmarin]

Headphones... maybe the monitor resolutions! 1024x768 only on windows!

[red_Marvin]

Is it actually possible to patent already commonly implemented stuff??




...Breathing...

[ispmarin]

It depends of the interpretation of "common stuff" that the patent office in the USA will give... and they are giving some very, very stupid patents.

[Zodiac]

I thought Konami did that first?

Up, down, left, right, up down, you get the idea...

[bonzodog]

um...this is old news. The patent was decided to be technically unenforcable especially outside the US, as the patent is not recognised anywhere but the US. I believe that MS got the patent just for the technicality of it.

[alinuxfan]

what all games did the Konami work for? I know Contra and I think there was at least one other...
2 players 30lives
up up down down left right left right B A (B A) select start
(can't remember if there was a second B A or not)

[K.Mandla]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn5072

Ok, so does this mean I now have to pay Microsoft a patent fee every time I shut down my desktop by pushing and holding my power button?

Summary of article: Microsoft has patented the concept of pushing buttons in different ways to get different results (push and hold =X while pushing twice = Y)
How can one country be so collectively stupid.

I must move to Canada soon. I cannot expect this degree of dumbness not to be somehow contagious.

[Kvark]

Is it actually possible to patent already commonly implemented stuff??




...Breathing...
Yes, it's possible. It is amazing how silly and widespread something can be and still be seen as an invention by the patent office. Take a look at this for example (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2178). If the patent would actually hold in court against kids who violate it is an entirely different question though.

[ispmarin]

Don't start looking...

http://newps.com.com/Microsofts+file+system+patent+upheld/2100-1012_3-6025447.html?tag=nefd.top

I pray that here in Brazil and in Europe this crazy thing will not happen... or in South Africa, or in any country in Asia, or in Oceania, or America... (America is the CONTINENT, not this patetic patenting country....)

[mips]

The USA is a country that seems to have thrown common sense out the window.

Bit crazy if you ask me and sometimes I think we need to movee them to another planet before this craziness spreads.

[tribaal]

Hopefully, any European patenting organisation would just laugh in the face of anyone who comes up with such a stupid idea.


Bit crazy if you ask me and sometimes I think we need to movee them to another planet before this craziness spreads.

/agree :p

- trib'

[Gustav]

I'm not sure and I have no official source of this, but I heard that some guy in Australia patented the wheel a couple of years ago :)

[ispmarin]

We should start relocating this crazy people FAST... I still wants to live in this planet!:mrgreen:

[halfvolle melk]

One might want to discern those that make policy from those that are forced to abide by it. As for software patents, Europe may still go down the same path.

[xmastree]

Up, down, left, right, up down, you get the idea...Isnt that the Hokey Kokey? :rolleyes:

The chap who wrote that dies recently. Apparently the funeral was a fiasco. As they were putting him in the coffin, they put his left leg in, and it all went downhill from there...


I'll get me coat.

[easyease]

america is capitalism gone mad. its all about greed and keeping the working classes dumb and violent.

[halfvolle melk]

According to David Icke it's the UK really :p

[Brunellus]

america is capitalism gone mad. its all about greed and keeping the working classes dumb and violent.
I don't think that's a fair characterization. And considering the charming behaviour of british football hooligans, both at home and abroad, it would appear that violent, ignorant working-class louts are not an isolated problem.

[mips]

I don't think that's a fair characterization. And considering the charming behaviour of british football hooligans, both at home and abroad, it would appear that violent, ignorant working-class louts are not an isolated problem.

You have a valid point. Glad I haven't met a hooligan yet but 2010 world cup is coming to a town near me soon...

[Qrk]

Don't worry... patents don't really matter as much as people think they do.

Most patents are issued for defensive reasons only... basically so another company won't sue the patent holder. They don't work nearly as well the other way around. For this reasons companies will patent things that they have never made and have no intention of making.

Two exceptions... pharmaceutical companies will patent drugs (and usually the process to make those drugs) to prevent generic drug companies from making the same drugs. But in America, at least, pharmaceuticals are governed by different sets of patent laws.

The other exception is the rare case where a patent is actually origional. This will be decided in court, not when the patent is granted. I highly doubt any court would uphold (most of) Microsoft's patents.