Yet another reason you shouldn't be able to patent an Idea. Patents should only be fore specific items you've already created or specific technology done in a very specific way. All these stupid generalized patents are just dumb. US Patent Office needs a serious makeover.
He didn't patent an idea. He patented "An apparatus for input/output management in a mobile computing environment" and "A method of communicating data in a mobile environment". At least the apparatus claim has a concrete, tangible thing associated with it. In any event, EVERY invention is an idea at some level of generality.
(NOTE: I am not saying that this patent should or should not have been granted. I don't know what the prosecution history looks like, and I haven't done a prior art search. So don't start flaming me as a fervent defender of the patent system. Though I am a patent attorney, I fully recognize that the PTO grants stuff that it probably shouldn't, and probably wouldn't if it had the time and resources to do it's job. I think the patent LAWS are fine, but I don't think that individual applications always get the attention they deserve and/or require, making the application of the laws to the facts suspect in some cases.)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike @ Mar 20th 2007 8:47AM
Yet another reason you shouldn't be able to patent an Idea. Patents should only be fore specific items you've already created or specific technology done in a very specific way. All these stupid generalized patents are just dumb. US Patent Office needs a serious makeover.
Scott @ Mar 20th 2007 9:36AM
He didn't patent an idea. He patented "An apparatus for input/output management in a mobile computing environment" and "A method of communicating data in a mobile environment". At least the apparatus claim has a concrete, tangible thing associated with it. In any event, EVERY invention is an idea at some level of generality.
(NOTE: I am not saying that this patent should or should not have been granted. I don't know what the prosecution history looks like, and I haven't done a prior art search. So don't start flaming me as a fervent defender of the patent system. Though I am a patent attorney, I fully recognize that the PTO grants stuff that it probably shouldn't, and probably wouldn't if it had the time and resources to do it's job. I think the patent LAWS are fine, but I don't think that individual applications always get the attention they deserve and/or require, making the application of the laws to the facts suspect in some cases.)