Patent Busting Project

Patent Busting Project

The Patent Busting Project is an EFF initiative launched April 19, 2004 to challenge patents that the EFF claims are illegitimate and suppress innovation or limit online expression. The initiative involves two phases: documenting the damage caused by these patents, and submitting challenges to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The EFF's basic assumption is that many such patents are invalid due to prior art which has historically been difficult to document in software and internet fields. (Many patent owners file patents to cover seemingly trivial concepts without any intention of enforcing the patents, but rather to use as part of a larger patent portfolio in their own defense against potential future patent lawsuits.)

Status

The effort began with a "patent busting contest" where the public was encouraged to submit proposals of the worst offenders. Of these, EFF chose the top "10 Most Wanted" list of patents based on patent viability, whether the patent owners intend to enforce these patents, and how much of a threat they are to potential infringers.

As of April 29 2006, EFF has announced formal challenges to two of the listed patents: Test.com's patent on administering online tests [http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004530] , and Clear Channel's patent on recording and distributing CDs of live shows [http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2006_04.php#004519] .

On October 23, 2007 The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted the EFF’s request for the reexamination of NeoMedia's patent #6,199,048.

Ten Most-wanted Patents

*Acacia Research: Audio and video receiving and transmission system
*Clear Channel Entertainment: System and method of creating digital recordings of live performances
*Acceris: Method and apparatus for implementing a computer network/internet telephone system
*Sheldon F. Goldberg: System and method for playing games on a network
*Ideaflood: System apparatus and method for hosting and assigning domain names on a wide area network
*Neomedia Technologies: System and method for automatic access of a remote computer over a network
*Test.com: Method for administering tests, lessons, assessments
*Nintendo: Software implementation of a handheld videogame hardware platform
*Firepond: System that uses natural language processing to respond to customers' online inquiries by email
*Seer Systems: System and method for generating, distributing, storing and performing musical work files

External links

* [http://www.eff.org/patent/ EFF Patent Busting Project page]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Peer to patent — The Peer to Patent project (also known as the Community PatentReview project) is an initiative that seeks reform of the patentsystem by gathering public input in a structured, productive manner. Apilot project in collaboration with the United… …   Wikipedia

  • Electronic Frontier Foundation — Infobox Company name = Electronic Frontier Foundation type = non profit organization foundation = 1990, U.S. location = San Francisco, California key people = industry = Law num employees = products = revenue = net income = homepage = [http://www …   Wikipedia

  • Патентный тролль — …   Википедия

  • Firepond — is a software and service company located in Mankato, Minnesota.The company has taken the name Firepond because it helps organizations accumulate all of their product and pricing data in a central location (as in a Fire pond). Once the data is… …   Wikipedia

  • Controversies surrounding Royal Dutch Shell — There have been concerns over Royal Dutch Shell over environmental and health and safety related issues as well as in respect of its businesses practices and priorities. In recent times Shell’s management has acknowledged some of these problems… …   Wikipedia

  • TARDIS — The TARDIS used from 2005 to 2010 on display at BBC Television Centre …   Wikipedia

  • Quorum — For other uses, see Quorum (disambiguation). A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to… …   Wikipedia

  • Kinect — for Xbox 360 …   Wikipedia

  • United States antitrust law — is the body of laws that prohibits anti competitive behavior (monopoly) and unfair business practices. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both, or generally to violate standards of… …   Wikipedia

  • Stroke — For other uses, see Stroke (disambiguation). Stroke Classification and external resources CT scan slice of the brain showing a right hemispheric ischemic stroke (left side of image). ICD 10 …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”