2008 Woodie Awards
Patenting the new way to Mosey around
Brian Moser
Issue date: 12/7/06 Section: Fun House
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Over the past few weeks, I have been reading some news about patents and patent infringement. This is generally serious news, unless you are reading the same news I am reading.
IBM, a huge corporation that deals in technology and computers, is suing Amazon, a huge online retailer, because they infringed on five of IBM's patents. These five patents cover the ideas of how to run an online store such as creating catalogues and methods for ordering products online.
By reading the abstract of these patents, obtained from links in an article on Dailytech.com, I came to the conclusion that these concepts are too broad and could be thought up between my friends and I on how an Internet retail store should operate. Trust me, we have those kind of conversations.
This is like having a company own the patent on how to operate a physical store and how they stock the shelves, sell their products, keep inventory, and manage the customers. I know the Internet is complicated, but the basic conceptual ideas on the methods of running an online store doesn't seem like an idea that could be patented.
According to Forbes.com, IBM was granted nearly 3,000 patents last year. Doesn't that seem a little excessive? I know that IBM is trying to be a leader in the technological field in innovation, but that is over eight patents a day. I am not insinuating that all their patents are conceptual like this one, but with so many patents each year, one can only assume that there are more of these kind of patents.
The next patent news may or may not have sprouted from the IBM patent infringement, but McDonalds, the humongous burger chain, is trying to patent the procedure on how to make sandwiches. The patent relates to the "method and apparatus" used to prepare the food. And yes, I am dead serious.
Anybody can make a sandwich. I made a couple yesterday. In fact, they were tuna fish and mayonnaise sandwiches. I don't think the sandwich is one of those novel ideas that need to be patented. The McDonald's patent was a stunning 55 pages.
IBM, a huge corporation that deals in technology and computers, is suing Amazon, a huge online retailer, because they infringed on five of IBM's patents. These five patents cover the ideas of how to run an online store such as creating catalogues and methods for ordering products online.
By reading the abstract of these patents, obtained from links in an article on Dailytech.com, I came to the conclusion that these concepts are too broad and could be thought up between my friends and I on how an Internet retail store should operate. Trust me, we have those kind of conversations.
This is like having a company own the patent on how to operate a physical store and how they stock the shelves, sell their products, keep inventory, and manage the customers. I know the Internet is complicated, but the basic conceptual ideas on the methods of running an online store doesn't seem like an idea that could be patented.
According to Forbes.com, IBM was granted nearly 3,000 patents last year. Doesn't that seem a little excessive? I know that IBM is trying to be a leader in the technological field in innovation, but that is over eight patents a day. I am not insinuating that all their patents are conceptual like this one, but with so many patents each year, one can only assume that there are more of these kind of patents.
The next patent news may or may not have sprouted from the IBM patent infringement, but McDonalds, the humongous burger chain, is trying to patent the procedure on how to make sandwiches. The patent relates to the "method and apparatus" used to prepare the food. And yes, I am dead serious.
Anybody can make a sandwich. I made a couple yesterday. In fact, they were tuna fish and mayonnaise sandwiches. I don't think the sandwich is one of those novel ideas that need to be patented. The McDonald's patent was a stunning 55 pages.
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