This is ridiculous. It's more profitable for the smaller company to patent something, wait for a bigger corporation to invent the same thing, and then sue them for patent infringement.
But then gain, the real culprit is the monetary system in general and as long as it's around, the lawsuits for monetary gain will continue. In fact, many problems will be solved by ridding the world of the monetary system (the root of most problems is monetarily based) because the real question when doing anything is if the physical resources (not monetary) is available. We are conditioned to believe that without money, no one would do anything to gain their daily needs for survival.
For example, a person who loves to teach in a monetary system cannot teach for free b/c they would be unable to earn the money necessary to support themselves and their family. Same goes for a school, they are limited by the number of teachers they can hire based on their monetary budget, regardless of the number of teacher available to teach. However, in a society that supplies the daily need for survival without a price tag (no monetary system), will allow a person who loves to teach to teach and the school will have no monetary limit to how many teacher that can work at their school.
In conclusion, the monetary system, does not represent the actual non-monetary based resources such as teachers, and only acts as a method to divide who gets what in a world that can provide a moderate standard of living to everyone (without a price tag), but fails to do so because there is no profit to be made.
9.12.2009 20:50 #1
I agree. It is ridiculous. I wrote a paper on this in college. They're called Patent Trolls. Some compies do exactly what you said. They get as many patents as they can and then wait until another company infringes upon their patent to sue them. The worse thing is when the judge issues an injunction, where the company being sued has to halt the production of the product that is infringing upon the patent, until the lawsuit is settled.
Back when civilization began people would trade goods for services and vice versa. It is easier to have a monetary system than the latter. Do you know of anywhere in the world where a non-monetary system exists? If everything was free very few people would put forth the time and energy involved in getting an education for lets say to become a doctor or another specialized decision. The monetary factor is a big motivator and is easier to trade for goods and services which is why we have that system.
10.12.2009 13:38 #2
I can't believe you're even allowed to patent something like "update the status via e-mail." Wow!
Anyway, Patent troll, i understand... Monetary system, i also understand... So, what's the connection between them again? Is it because of the monetary system that's why we have patents? Who started the patent rules anyway, it's ridiculous. I read somewhere that your own DNAs were patented by somebody, so you technically don't own your body, lol.
11.12.2009 11:53 #3
This is nonsense email notification is normal across the board regardless of account statuses and all that stuff it is really the silly season now.
11.12.2009 16:55 #4
When I was a kid, I used to mix my shampoo with conditioner. That means I can sue all those companies that sell the 2 in 1 product...
11.12.2009 18:25 #5
I used a gaming ball controller for a mouse way before anyone came up with the trackball mouse I should have patent that I'd be rich. That was back when 8080 CPU's were just on the market. It is very sad what they will allow to be patent these days.
12.12.2009 22:06 #6
