<
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/27/stupid-patent-of-the-month-selfie-contests/>
"Patents are supposed to be an incentive to invent. Too often, they end up
being a way to try to claim “ownership” of what should be basic building blocks
of human activity, culture, and knowledge. This is especially true of software
patents, an area EFF has been speaking out about for more than 20 years now.
This month’s Stupid Patent, No. 8,655,715, continues the tradition of trying to
use software language to capture a monopoly on a basic human cultural activity
— in this case, contests.
A company called Opus One, which does business under the name “Contest
Factory,” claims this patent and a related one cover a huge array of online
contests. So far, they’ve filed five lawsuits against other companies that help
build online contests, and even threatened a small photo company that organizes
mostly non-commercial contests online.
The patents held by Contest Factory are a good illustration of why EFF has been
concerned about out-of-control software patents. It’s not just that wrongly
issued patents extort a vast tax on the U.S. economy (although they do—one
study estimated $29 billion in annual direct costs). The worst software patents
also harm peoples’ rights to express themselves and participate in online
culture. Just as we’re free in the physical world to sign documents, sort
photos, store and label information, clock in to work, find people to date, or
teach foreign languages, without paying extortionate fees to others, we must
also be free to do so online."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
