Comments on: Things that scare Sun's Schwartz

perspective Sun President Jonathan Schwartz has a pre-Halloween case of the creeps--and for good reason.

Patents are NOT too easy to get...

It cost TV Interactive Data (www.tvi.com) over $50,000 in legal fees to obtain each of its patents. Now it is costing TVI millions of dollars to pursue its patent infringment claim against Microsoft. The barriers are already insanely high.

they are too easy, not cheap

A porche is easy to get, if you have the money you can get enough of them to make a border around you house two porches high. They are not cheap to get though.

Sun is right patents are hurting us. We need to work on logical patents for those with too much money. Patenting the double click for small devices? Give me a break. It is like someone getting the pattent for taking two steps in a row instead of one step and one step.

With another presidential election coming soon I would also like to say "I invented the internet". ( quotation from a prior election ).

[marten80228]

Penetrating Glimpse into the Obvious

The only problem with Mr. Schwartzs article is that he failed to leave himself enough 'wiggle' room in his predictions. I am sure that however the future evolves it will be even scarier than he can imagine.....in a good kind of way scary.

Patents are for the rich, not the creative

Patents currently are only available to those with plenty of either time or money to buy someone else's time. They don't get vetted anymore on the basis of being a SIGNIFICANT new idea. They also require a lot of time and study to understand -- even if the person studying the document is an expert in the field -- because of the obscure language used in them.

One of the original purposes of patents was to have a usable database of knowledge concerning how to build things. I seriously doubt that is the case anymore. I can find in my field many instances where it is quicker for me to re-invent the idea than it is to try to look it up. That says there is no good way to search (even with all the improvements that have been made) and that the ability to search is severely hindered by the incredibly obscure and painful language many are written in. It also says something about the obviousness of the ideas. If anybody competent in a field is presented a problem with the same constraints as that solved by a patent can come up with a mechanism or process to solve that problem in a matter of hours, it serves only an anti-competitive purpose to patent that idea.

Put Technology Where Complaint Is

When you are able to propose a system that technically and organizationally fixes the current one, the powers that be will listen. Otherwise, this article is yet another in the litany of complaints by a company that has yet to offer a solution to a problem it helps create. Sun has a lot of smart guys working for them. Time to ante up a design that will enable global IP processes to work efficiently and in the best interests of all concerned.

[cbazza]

Sun is validating this whole illegitimate patent industry !!!

Given your comments about "Litigation gone awry", then why did Sun settled with Kodak and validated their questionable patents with a rather large sum of money; $92 million to be more precise.

Sun is sending the message out that these things are worth good money if you simply litigate. The US government has a policy not to negociate with terrorists; High tech companies should have a policy of not negociating with extortionists willing to license them trivial and most likely illegitimate patents.

What the industry needs to do is call a pruce and sign a treaty similar to the global nuclear disarmament treaty. It is time that all large companies, including Sun, decide to reduce their stockpiles of wasteful patent ammunition that is doing nothing but stifling competition.

[David Arbogast]

What a joke...

You are joking, right?
You want American businesses to simply give up their intellectual property? Give me a break. A patent is legal and legitimate until it has been declared otherwise by a US court of law. Companies refusing to honor patents that they don't like will find themselves in a heap of legal troubles.

Like a previous suggests... Find a solution before you destroy the existing system. Eliminating software patents will simply not happen.

[ajbright]

RFID needs regulation

Patents are too easy to get, but only for the wrong people. Corporations that have the finance to buy patents are the only winners - the little guy that thought up a million dollar idea, but couldn't get the investment to protect himself, always loses to Microsoft, err I mean big business.

RFID is a great idea - but I have to side with your Doctor on this one. When your kid is 17, on the run from the cops with a joint in his pocket - he's not going to be too thrilled that you installed a short range tracking device between his shoulder blades. Okay, the chances that one day he will become a political activist, on the run from the evil empire are slim - but still just because it can be used for reasonable purposes doesn't mean it shouldn't be heavily monitored and regulated. As you admit yourself, the opportunities for abuse are huge - even at the least orweniable (is that a word?) end of the scale, e.g. crank up the volume a bit, and allow marketeers in your home city to track what kinds of goods you like to purchase, and get an estimate of your disposable income. The outcome, even more annoying phone calls during the one time you crave piece. That little bit of time you need to call your own, between putting the kids to bed and getting to bed yourself.

As for the potential to cash in on the need for speed. Well if the government had invested 200 billion dollars in the communications network of America, instead of some personal vendetta in Iraq - maybe we'd actually have enough bandwidth, for this week anyway. Imagine what each state could do with 4 billion dollars to spend of telecommunications networking. Imagine the jobs that would have generated - the high paying, top network jobs that are slowly disappearing. Imagine the knock on effect of those jobs, after all what's the use of being high paid if you can't have a plasma TV in every room, a jacuzzi fitted in your bedroom , a landscaped rain forest for a yard - all jobs that would be created to support your new found lifestyle.

Yes it speaks of government subsidy, but if the contracts were forced to be transparently bidded on - the opportunities for abuse would be scaled down at least a bit.

The end result though, would be a country that has a broadband network to rival Japan and South Korea.

[David Arbogast]

Completely Disagree

You stated:
"Patents are too easy to get, but only for the wrong people. Corporations that have the finance to buy patents are the only winners - the little guy that thought up a million dollar idea, but couldn't get the investment to protect himself, always loses to Microsoft, err I mean big business."

I couldn't disagree more. That is NOT how the patent system works at all. My grandfather was a poor man for most of his life and was able to obtain patents for his own invetions. They paid off and he made a decent living. Patents are not for the rich, and the system does not cater to the rich. The wealthy can simply afford more research that results is patentable ideas and products. And that is exactly how it should be.

Sun made a grievous error

They should never have settled. Software patents should be banned, period. There are too many examples are bogus patents, amazons 'one click' is an example. There is nothing new in that, it is only some lines of code available to all. There is no new technolgy involved.

Software is exactly like books. It is merely a collection of words. There is no new technology in any piece of software. With perhaps the exception of using a new hardware technology. There is also an infinite number of ways to get the exact same software.

Copyrighting software is more then sufficient to protect companies investments.

You people should just learn to ignore Mr Arbagast(sp?). He is just an ignorant MS worshipper. If Uncle Bill told him the world was flat he would be frothing at the mouth at any suggestion otherwise.

Keep dreaming

I have never been to slashdot and those easy questions that stumped you, I thought of in about 10 seconds.

Keep on ASSuming.