These guys are trying to sued everyone that can get their hands on for using E-Commerce techniques..(Not Technologies)
Chek out this link:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20...1020S0002[/url]
Here is a link to also check out...In our defense!
http://www.youmaybenext.com/
Has this happended to anyone here yet?
Shawn
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8 replies to this topic
#3
Posted 22 October 2002 - 08:22 AM
You can read the story now on slashdot.
This is just another example of patents gone mad.
Fortunately these patents are not valid in Europe ;-)
I can only advise our american users to get in contact with the EFF and join forces to stop this ridiculous stuff. BTW - there is prior art here. Ask google for minivend ;-)
HTH
This is just another example of patents gone mad.
Fortunately these patents are not valid in Europe ;-)
I can only advise our american users to get in contact with the EFF and join forces to stop this ridiculous stuff. BTW - there is prior art here. Ask google for minivend ;-)
HTH
You can't have everything. That's why trains have difficulty crossing oceans, and hippos did not adapt to fly. -- from the OpenBSD mailinglist.
#4
Posted 22 October 2002 - 08:31 AM
OK, I will help you with your search ;-)
From: http://carnagepro.com/pub/Docs/MiniVend/
IANAL - but this can be considered prior art, making the patents obsolete. I would ask the EFF or the FSF about this.
From: http://carnagepro.com/pub/Docs/MiniVend/
Quote
About Vend, MiniVend's ancestor
Vend was written by Andrew Wilcox in the early part of 1995, and the first released (beta) version was 0.2. Vend 0.2 is the parent of MiniVend, and the first version of MiniVend (called Vend 0.2m7) was totally based on that. It added searching and DBM catalog storage. Subsequent versions took parts from Vend 0.3, especially the VLINK and Server.pm modules, which were adapted to run with MiniVend.
The first release of MiniVend (0.2m7) was on December 28, 1995, making it over four years old. A veritable eon in web time!
Vend was written by Andrew Wilcox in the early part of 1995, and the first released (beta) version was 0.2. Vend 0.2 is the parent of MiniVend, and the first version of MiniVend (called Vend 0.2m7) was totally based on that. It added searching and DBM catalog storage. Subsequent versions took parts from Vend 0.3, especially the VLINK and Server.pm modules, which were adapted to run with MiniVend.
The first release of MiniVend (0.2m7) was on December 28, 1995, making it over four years old. A veritable eon in web time!
IANAL - but this can be considered prior art, making the patents obsolete. I would ask the EFF or the FSF about this.
You can't have everything. That's why trains have difficulty crossing oceans, and hippos did not adapt to fly. -- from the OpenBSD mailinglist.
#5
Posted 22 October 2002 - 08:56 AM
Quote
These guys are trying to sued everyone that can get their hands on for using E-Commerce techniques..(Not Technologies)
Chek out this link:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20...1020S0002[/url]
Here is a link to also check out...In our defense!
http://www.youmaybenext.com/
Has this happended to anyone here yet?
Shawn
Chek out this link:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20...1020S0002[/url]
Here is a link to also check out...In our defense!
http://www.youmaybenext.com/
Has this happended to anyone here yet?
Shawn
I don't understand what that means...
being sued for selling over the net using osc? or selling a specific product using osc?
or what else?
Sal
PS: Europe is not affected I presume...
#6
Posted 22 October 2002 - 09:14 AM
[rant]
Welcome to the American "Free Market" system. (For other misnomers also see America's "Free Media" and "Checks & Balances".)
[/rant]
Welcome to the American "Free Market" system. (For other misnomers also see America's "Free Media" and "Checks & Balances".)
[/rant]
"It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word."
-- Andrew Jackson
-- Andrew Jackson
#8
Posted 23 October 2002 - 02:28 AM
Basically for those that didn't read the whole article;
This company [PanIP LLC ] was awarded 2 patents on E-Commerce techiques that are employed in every e-commerce website in the world! The lanuage of the patents are so vague that they literally apply to any website that sells anything.
PanIP LLC has begun a spree of lawsuits going after small to medium sized organizations. So far these people [from what I understand] have not lost a case yet and are gouging e-commerce websites, all becuase they sell stuff via the web.
I can only speculate that there intention is to sue little companies and reap the $$ all the while building up a precedents so that that will have a foot hold to go after folks like Amazon.com and Toys R Us.
What ever their battle plan is it scares the hell out of me! This is exactly the kind of thing that can RUIN a company and put people out of jobs! These jokers neither wrote the code nor developed the technology. They are free loading bastards that filed a patent on somthing that they did not create and are now on a financial war path to make themselve rich with out having to work for it and ruin companies like us.
Based upon the ridiculous nature of there claims I think I am going to file a patent on Rock & Roll music and then I am going to sue the Beatles for making music and selling it!
I would have a case after all... wouldn't I?
This company [PanIP LLC ] was awarded 2 patents on E-Commerce techiques that are employed in every e-commerce website in the world! The lanuage of the patents are so vague that they literally apply to any website that sells anything.
PanIP LLC has begun a spree of lawsuits going after small to medium sized organizations. So far these people [from what I understand] have not lost a case yet and are gouging e-commerce websites, all becuase they sell stuff via the web.
I can only speculate that there intention is to sue little companies and reap the $$ all the while building up a precedents so that that will have a foot hold to go after folks like Amazon.com and Toys R Us.
What ever their battle plan is it scares the hell out of me! This is exactly the kind of thing that can RUIN a company and put people out of jobs! These jokers neither wrote the code nor developed the technology. They are free loading bastards that filed a patent on somthing that they did not create and are now on a financial war path to make themselve rich with out having to work for it and ruin companies like us.
Based upon the ridiculous nature of there claims I think I am going to file a patent on Rock & Roll music and then I am going to sue the Beatles for making music and selling it!
I would have a case after all... wouldn't I?
#9
Posted 23 October 2002 - 07:39 PM
This guy has tried this before only on a larger scale. In a different article, there was this Apparently he has a habit of getting vague patents and trying to sue for violations, but as in the previous case, he lost and got them revoked. I wouldn't worry about it too much based on the previous outcome of the similair case. Lockwood is the guy that sold the rights of the patents to PanIP, which only opened it's doors a few months ago and started suing right away. Sounds like a scam to make quick money to me and I don't think it will last long in the courts. Just my opinion though.
Quote
" Lockwood was involved in a famous patent case in 1991, when he sued
American Airlines for violating three patents he had obtained for an
automated travel-reservation system. Lockwood lost that case in U.S.
district court in San Diego, says Joseph Re, an attorney with Knobbe,
Martens, Olson & Bear LLP, who represented American Airlines, and then lost
on appeal in the Federal Circuit Court in Washington in 1997. The courts
invalidated two of his patents."
American Airlines for violating three patents he had obtained for an
automated travel-reservation system. Lockwood lost that case in U.S.
district court in San Diego, says Joseph Re, an attorney with Knobbe,
Martens, Olson & Bear LLP, who represented American Airlines, and then lost
on appeal in the Federal Circuit Court in Washington in 1997. The courts
invalidated two of his patents."
