NYT fights back against links-in-texts patent

If someone owned a patent for the paper bag...

...could he sue cafes for putting sandwiches inside paper bags and grocers for putting shopping inside paper bags? There is absolutely no additional technology or thought involved with putting a URL in a SMS, so it's not something that should be patentable. Saying that, a US court says a rectangle with rounded corners is the upheld patented design of Apple. How can something without sharp corners be patented? Only in America. :-(

Seriously?

IIRC there is even an ETSI specification about how to integrate URLs in the Information Element (binary payload which may use some or all of the 140 text byte) of an SMS.

(Posting before the "This innvoation has to be protected against theft!!11" ovine spongiform encephalopathy hits)

For a "company" (troll) that supposedly licensed the technology for $750,000 they could use some of that to invest in their website. I have seen better sites designed by 6 year olds. Their "portfolio" page says "Click below to view" but when you look at the souce for the page there are no links to the US Patent Ofice. Their "Licensing" page has a number of "defaults" where contact information would normally be (Phone and Fax No for example).

If this is the best they can afford I wonder how they can afford lawyers to enforce their patents (or do the lawyers take all of the income and leave nothing for the company to improve their image/reputation).

FFS

Honestly, this is getting ridiculous. thank some deity I don't live in the US, otherwise I'd just be embarrassed., how is this different to Patent US7966578 that apple filed and should never have been granted. the idea of something having a meaning in a context is so f****ng obvious I'd be likely to try and award charges against the plaintive if I was on the jury, regardless of instructions.

How on earth is it possible to patent an html link, linking to a document just because the link is not presented in a web browser, that is the definition of a hyperlink in a hypertext document. Can you imagine how TBL must feel, actually I know exactly how he feels along with the majority on here. What next, patenting round corners? what that failed? Maybe bevels should be patented? Hm, are bevels not just rounded, but chambered corners, i.e. a discontinuous form of a corner tending towards a rounded shape if you were to smooth it out? Glad I never thought of the idea of smoothing something out to save discomfort. Oops sorry, my other business has been doing this on wood furniture for a while, must grab things like a dovetail connector shape for devices in case NFC doesn't take off.

It's all in the eyes

I once went to the London Patent Office to research an idea that I'd had. Everyone was scurrying around with £ signs in their eyes. Almost as if they all wanted to patent the wheelbarrow and become millionaires. It's really worth a visit.

Stop whinging about absurd patents and, in particular, Apple's many examples !

Hasn't our beloved «executive editor» informed us in this very number of the Reg that «the Apple-Samsung verdict is GOOD for YOU, your KIDS and TECH» ? How dare anyon question this divine wisdom ? Patents - the more absurd the better - are going to save us all (with the exception of those dastardly «freetards» - our executive editor's contribution to the vocabulary of the English language - who no doubt deserve their miserable fates). It is, of course, entirely consistent with our executive editor's exalted character that certain unfortunate Reg readers who haven't fully grasped the sacrosanct nature of his pronunciamentos are blocked from commenting on his postings....

Henri