Interesting People mailing list archives
To patent or not to patent a "business method"
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 12:25:14 -0400
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 09:15:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall () astron berkeley edu> Subject: To patent or not to patent a "business method" X-X-Sender: jhall@irk To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net> http://www.washtimes.com/business/20030725-101707-9540r.htm Internet patents divide industry By Justin Pope ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON Tim O'Reilly's company had a new and potentially lucrative idea in the early 1990s: Use advertising revenue to run a Web portal. Essentially, he says, Global Network Navigator invented the Internet banner ad. According to a landmark court decision handed down five years ago this month, Mr. O'Reilly may have been able to patent the idea as a "business method" a move that could have changed the course of Internet history. But even if he could have, he says he wouldn't have. "If I had been able to put a patent on that and collect from everybody else who did it, that would have held back the industry tremendously," said Mr. O'Reilly, who after the sale of GNN to America Online, now heads O'Reilly Associates, a technology publishing company. He is a critic of broad patent protections. [...] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Joseph Lorenzo Hall Graduate Student http://pobox.com/~joehall
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- To patent or not to patent a "business method" Dave Farber (Jul 26)