What are you, Apple? Storage upstart patents filesystem wrapper tech Cloud storage upstart Nasuni has been granted a patent for its UniFS file system, which layers a filesystem onto a public cloud storage provider’s object storage systems. Nasuni (NAS-unified) offers primary storage in the public cloud through its filers, NF-series cloud storage gateway systems. One aspect of this is that the …
I sense the headline writers at El Reg have had a diktat from on high that they must have three verifiable and preferably sane excuses for not putting 'Apple' in.
Seems to be working as a lot of articles have Apple in the title and, actually, bugger all to do with Apple in the article.
This is bullshit. Anybody promoting this as a patent-able concept is not qualified to make the application.
Patent applications have become a ridiculous game whereby they throw anything and everything at the wall to see if it will stick and of course some does. If such a patent survives a challenge it renders the patent system meaningless (not that it needs much help).
There is no realistic attempt to find prior art and the applications are now written in such obscure language it defeats the ostensible purpose of the patent system anyway. A murky patent for things already a part of prior art cannot be used by anybody but a lawyer.
When the only people served by the patent system are lawyers, the patent system has to be net negative.
At least as far as business processes and software and mathematics are concerned, patents are crying out for abolition.
Must add:
For patent trolls and vicious competitors the patent system is all upside with zero downside. With enough crafty bullshit patents and a convincing claim that you will go to court you can join a patent cartel and use your bully-boy tactics to avoid paying anybody for real patents.
In the absence of abolition, we need a mechanism that penalizes illegitimate patent claims sufficiently to make patent trolling and other patent misuse unprofitable.
I'm guessing at least ZFS already does stuff like this, unless they're going for the "but we do it in TEH CLOUDZ!" angle. Anyway, it's possible they'll succeed thanks to that horrible "America Invents Act" where prior art is no longer a patent breaker if it hasn't been patented first. That act made patent trolls very happy!
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
