Isn't this what registered designs are supposed to be for? "Their drawing looks like ours" is *not* grounds for patent infringement.
Samsung backside-bitten by emoticon patent trollery
Samsung’s patent lawsuit against Apple over emoticons has bitten the smartphone maker in the behind, with a patent troll hoarder called Varia now suing Samsung over the same thing. At the bottom of it all is our relentless pursuit of the laziest possible way to carry out the most mundane activities. Since emoticons are …
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Tuesday 20th March 2012 00:40 GMT A. Coatsworth
Question (AKA WTF?!)
So Samsung got a patent. It infringes an older patent, but how could Samsung know?
I would have guessed it's the Patent Office's job doing a background this kind of situation, not the patent submitter... is it?
Or can the office just say "tough luck" and get with it?
I'm not defending Samsung (this whole patent war is beyond stupid) but I think it's unfair that they, or anyone else, lose a patent because of what looks like a gross ineptitude of the patent office
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Tuesday 20th March 2012 01:58 GMT Andrew Jones 2
Re: Question (AKA WTF?!)
My understanding is that you pay the patent office a sum of money and file an application - after a stupid amount of time - the patent is granted regardless of whether other patents exist that may be of a similar nature. The courts are then left to determine if the patent is even valid.
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Tuesday 20th March 2012 04:19 GMT Wile E. Veteran
Re: Question (AKA WTF?!)
I think it's unfair that they, or anyone else, lose a patent because of what looks like a gross ineptitude of the patent office
I think it's unfair so many GET patents due to the gross incompetence of the patent office.
I just patented representing instructions and data using 1's and 0's. You all owe me TRILLIONS! Bwa-ha-ha!
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Tuesday 20th March 2012 07:13 GMT frank ly
Re: Question (AKA WTF?!)
I have an idea........ Samsung should sue the US patent office for false representations which led Samsung to spend money of a court case and also placed it in a position where it could be sued by Varia. Then Varia could sue the patent office for the same false representation that caused it to spend money suing Samsung. Then Apple could...... oh, wait a minute.
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Tuesday 20th March 2012 15:40 GMT admiraljkb
Re: Hahahaha
"Remember ICQ? they had it way before Skype existed and way before most others..."
Yes, but that wasn't on a MOBILE computing device. Crazy enough, look at everything you do on your desktop, and then just patent it for your phone. That is a lot of what has been occurring, since the patent office distinguishes a difference between mobile computers and desktop computers. Wonder if that means I can start patenting a hardware smiley button for ultrabooks?
(the other problem, is the Patent offices (globally) are getting confused about what should be registered trademarks, versus patentable "proper" inventions, versus copyright law)
Fail icon, cuz I could only do one.... The current patent situation deserves SOO many more. :)
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