Hopefully one day software patents will be outlawed. Patents are supposed to foster the development of new technology by reassuring the developers that their efforts will make them money - by recieving royalties from people that want to incorporate the new tech into their products.
That's all well and good when you're talking about a physical technology like a fancy new cheese grater or something, because anybody who wants to make a cheese grater without paying royalties for the patent on the fancy new one, can just make their own design.
Software's different, due to the nature of it, there are some ideas that are just common sense and there's only really one way to program them right. By patenting software, you force your competitors to either pay you just to be allowed to compete, or try to work around the patent by creating some messy, innefficient code.
In this case, Tivo is affecting EchoStar's ability to compete with them by patenting a pretty basic software feature that, crucially, EchoStar would probably have developed in the same way themselves if they'd got there first, so Tivo is hardly protecting some absolutely diamond piece of R&D here. It's not like they cured computer cancer.
You are wrong. Perhaps you aren't old enough, or don't remember the world before TiVo. The ability to pause and rewind live TV was amazing when they first came out with it. You simply take it for granted today.
You obviously have read a lot of “patents are bad” blogs. TiVo pioneered the DVR. Believe it or not, some patents ARE useful, and TiVo holding DVR-related patents is a prime example.
The Chromebooks are here, starting with Samsung's Series 5, a cute little number that promises instant-on access, 3G connectivity, and long enough battery life to web surf with the best of 'em.
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Hopefully one day software patents will be outlawed. Patents are supposed to foster the development of new technology by reassuring the developers that their efforts will make them money - by recieving royalties from people that want to incorporate the new tech into their products.
That's all well and good when you're talking about a physical technology like a fancy new cheese grater or something, because anybody who wants to make a cheese grater without paying royalties for the patent on the fancy new one, can just make their own design.
Software's different, due to the nature of it, there are some ideas that are just common sense and there's only really one way to program them right. By patenting software, you force your competitors to either pay you just to be allowed to compete, or try to work around the patent by creating some messy, innefficient code.
In this case, Tivo is affecting EchoStar's ability to compete with them by patenting a pretty basic software feature that, crucially, EchoStar would probably have developed in the same way themselves if they'd got there first, so Tivo is hardly protecting some absolutely diamond piece of R&D here. It's not like they cured computer cancer.
You are wrong. Perhaps you aren't old enough, or don't remember the world before TiVo. The ability to pause and rewind live TV was amazing when they first came out with it. You simply take it for granted today.
You obviously have read a lot of “patents are bad” blogs. TiVo pioneered the DVR. Believe it or not, some patents ARE useful, and TiVo holding DVR-related patents is a prime example.