| Patent Demand Survey: Last Call — Please Help If You Can ~pj |
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Wednesday, August 15 2012 @ 02:00 PM EDT
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Last Month, I mentioned a
survey on patent demands that law professor Colleen Chien of Santa Clara University is asking folks to fill out, asking for experiences with patent trolls um… nonpracticing entities. The specific interest is the impact on small businesses and entrepreneurs. How big is this problem? How many are being affected and how?
The results will be used for academic purposes, including to form the basis of policy recommendations. If you or your company got a letter demanding you license a patent or received a threat of a lawsuit, how was it handled? Did it affect the company’s plans, for example, as to where money would be spent? Even if it hasn’t happened to you yet, is it something you worry about, or feel you must consider in your plans?
A lot of you did participate, and now the survey folks are asking if there are any others here who did not fill out the form who could. Don’t do it twice, of course, but surveys like this matter most when they have large participation, so this is last call to put a little dent in the universe, maybe, if enough people participate.
So if you have had experience with such problems, please consider answering their few questions here. The instructions say, “However, you should take the survey even if you’ve never received a demand.” I guess that means if you feel you have to factor in the possibility of dealing with this issue, you should still tell them about it. It’s strictly anonymous, so don’t give your name or the name of your company. Scroll down the page, as the survey itself begins with the word “Background” but on that same page, below the message from Professor Chien.
And if you know someone else who has had to deal with this kind of issue or who would be interested in participating, let them know about the survey too. Your company doesn’t have to be a tech company. A well-done survey collecting real-world experiences would be helpful. Please do spread the word in all the ways you know about, including ones that the Internet makes possible, if you don’t personally have an experience to share. If you have any questions, you can contact Professor Chien [[email protected]].
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| Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, August 15 2012 @ 02:09 PM EDT |
If any.
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You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, August 15 2012 @ 02:11 PM EDT |
Get ’em in if you have time.
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You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, August 15 2012 @ 02:14 PM EDT |
Please include a link to the article you are
referencing for future readers.
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You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: SpaceLifeForm on Wednesday, August 15 2012 @ 02:16 PM EDT |
Please make any links clickable
unless they point to FM or other
questionable sources.
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You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.[ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, August 15 2012 @ 05:00 PM EDT |
I did the survey a month or so ago, after carefully reading the
patents I
was accused of violating three or four years ago. (The patent holder
died.
AFAIK, the estate has not filed any legal paperwork against me.)
If I am
sued by the estate of the patent holder, the biggest stumbling
block I’ll have,
in demonstrating prior art are:
* The computer software from circa 1970,
that provides the same basic
functionality;
* The software I wrote in 1985,
that didn’t work, and whose source code I
have
since lost, that would provide
the same functionality as described in the
patent;
* The software I wrote
circa 1997, whose source code I have since lost,
that provides the same
functionality as the patent covers. (A different
party filed a copyright
infringement notice, claiming that this software
violated their copyright on a
book that they had written. The only
information about the software that the
party had, was a description of
what it did. They never saw a demo, much less
a working program.);
* The spreadsheet I wrote (and have since lost) in
2003 that provides the
same functionality as the patent covers;
* The
spreadsheet I wrote in 2007, that provides the same functionality
as the patent
covers. This spreadsheet has been updated a number of
times since then. I may
not have a copy of the 2007 version. I do have a
working copy of the 2012
version.);
The secondary issue I’ll have, is in “proving” that I
wrote the software
and spreadsheet when i said I did. Due to assorted hardware
failures over
time, my working notes prior to December 2011 are no longer
extant.
The patent in question was applied for in 2006, and granted in
2007. [ Reply to This | # ]
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| Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, August 16 2012 @ 06:59 AM EDT |
This survey will does not capture cases (like my own) where an individual (e.g.,
me) decided not to set up their business in the end because of the ongoing
threat of software patents.[ Reply to This | # ]
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