[Ecommerce] Re: [A2k] Patent quality : open source to help?

[Peter Eckersley]

I don't know if you're right Rishab, but IBM, like any other firm, is going=
 to
do whatever is in the best interests of its shareholders and/or managers.  =
To
date, that has meant (1) engaging in activism that lead to the near-global
patentability of algorithms, protocols and file formats and (2) filing a lo=
t
of those sorts of patents.  That's business.

What we need to do now is point out to the relevant divisions of IBM that i=
t
is in their interest to lobby to exclude free/open source software from pat=
ent
liability (provided, perhaps, that avoiding a patent was not the predominan=
t
reason for making a particular piece of code free).  They've already been
moving in this direction with their own portfolio; it therefore could only =
be
good for IBM's shareholders to see that become the default position at law.

On Fri, Jan 13, 2006 at 02:13:21AM -0500, rishab@dxm.org wrote:
> i tend to think this is a PR gimmick. if IBM bothered to improve the prio=
r
> art citation in its _own_ (usually very poorly documented) patent
> applications, that would be a good start. if IBM won't do it for its own
> patents, it's just a nice diversion to keep the PTO and others busy looki=
ng
> at public prior art contributions, while IBM can keep filing for more cra=
p
> patents which the PTO would have even less time to examine.
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Peter Eckersley pde@cs.mu.OZ.AU
> Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:56:09 +1100
> To: michelle.childs@cptech.org, a2k@lists.essential.org,
> ecommerce@lists.essential.org, rssutor@gmail.com
> Subject: Re: [A2k] Patent quality : open source to help?
>
>
> I hope that members of the free software community are going to be paid f=
or
> helping the US government to administer an inefficient and unnecessarily
> burdensome arm of their patent system.  Free software developers are alre=
ady
> doing enough volunteer public service work!
>
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 07:27:21AM -0500, Michelle Childs wrote:
> >  <snip> The US Patent Office is to seek the help of the open source
> > community in improving patent quality, and IBM is going to lend a hand =
too
> >
> > The Patent Office is encouraging participation in all three initiatives
> > and will hold a public meeting at its offices on 16 February.
> >
> > http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39246274,00.htm
> > IBM leads US patent pack
> > Martin LaMonica
> > CNET News.com
> > January 10, 2006, 09:30 GMT
> >
> > The US Patent Office is to seek the help of the open source community i=
n
> > improving patent quality, and IBM is going to lend a hand too
> >
> > IBM is expected to announce on Tuesday that it won more US patents than
> > any other company and that it will participate in three initiatives to
> > improve patent quality.
> >
> > For the thirteenth consecutive year, IBM was awarded the most patents =
=97
> > more than 2,900 =97 by the US Patent and Trademark Office, according to=
 the
> > company.
> >
> > IBM is also expected to detail three multiparty efforts to increase rev=
iew
> > of patent applications, in part by tapping open source developers and
> > collaborative software. Partners include the Patent Office and the Open
> > Source Development Labs (OSDL), an industry consortium that launched a
> > "patent commons" for open source communities in November 2005.
> >
> > The US patent system and the quality of patents are increasingly
> > high-profile issues in the technology industry. Patents have been the
> > source of several lawsuits and a number of intellectual-property licens=
ing
> > firms have emerged.
> >
> > Although the contents of patent applications are public record and
> > available to anyone, IBM has worked with the Patent Office to develop t=
he
> > Open Patent Review, a program to allow people, including academics and
> > corporate technologists, to easily view the contents of filed patents a=
nd
> > provide feedback to patent examiners.
> >
> > The system will be designed so people can sign up to receive email or R=
SS
> > alerts about patent applications filed with certain criteria, according=
 to
> > Bob Sutor, IBM's vice-president of standards and open source. IBM is al=
so
> > sponsoring a Community Patent Web site.
> >
> > In another effort, the OSDL is hosting a Web site called the Open Sourc=
e
> > Software as Prior Art project, which will be designed as a way to searc=
h
> > through existing open source code. IBM, Novell, Red Hat and VA Software=
's
> > SourceForge.net are participating.
> >
> > Sutor said he expects that open source developers will search the prior
> > art system to find existing software and create a "tagging" mechanism f=
or
> > labeling and categorising code.
> >
> > In a statement, the Patent Office said it intends to work more closely
> > with open source communities.
> >
> > "Collaboration between the Patent Office and the open source community
> > builds on the momentum of the open source model," said John Doll,
> > Commissioner for Patents at the Patent Office. "There is powerful logic=
 in
> > tapping vast public resources to address the growing public interest in
> > patent quality."
> >
> > IBM's Sutor said that growing interest in the patent system and emergin=
g
> > collaborative technologies make more rigorous reviews "extremely
> > feasible".
> >
> > "There's a lot of practical interest and a lot of academic interest in =
the
> > patent system," Sutor said. "And I think the community is going to be
> > extremely motivated to do [reviews]."
> >
> > The third initiative, the Patent Quality Index, calls for a system to r=
ank
> > the quality of the patent application. IBM is supporting the work of
> > University of Pennsylvania Professor R. Polk Wagner, who will direct th=
e
> > effort.
> >
> > The Patent Office is encouraging participation in all three initiatives
> > and will hold a public meeting at its offices on 16 February.
> >
>
> --
> Peter Eckersley
> Department of Computer Science   &                  mailto:pde@cs.mu.oz.a=
u
> IP Research Institute of Australia             http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~pd=
e
> The University of Melbourne

--
Peter Eckersley
Department of Computer Science   &                  mailto:pde@cs.mu.oz.au
IP Research Institute of Australia             http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~pde
The University of Melbourne