Patent lawsuits typically cost $1 million or more. That’s not to say that you should deliberately infringe if you are a small entity, but it does help put the risk of a lawsuit in perspective.
Well here’s where it gets tricky. The first independent claim that was allowed was:
26. A system for accessing data comprising….physical metadata elements….
So technically, they have patented a machine (i.e. system) that has physical metadata elements (i.e. memory bits) configured in a certain way. The infringer would not be someone who wrote software, but someone who ran software on a machine.
You can argue that this is a ridiculous distinction, and I would agree. Machines, however, are firmly patentable. So if you want to insist that software shouldn’t be patentable, that’s fine. The consequence, however, is a bunch of patents that claim physical machines and where it is that much harder to tell if you are infringing.
Authored Comments
Patent lawsuits typically cost $1 million or more. That’s not to say that you should deliberately infringe if you are a small entity, but it does help put the risk of a lawsuit in perspective.
Well here’s where it gets tricky. The first independent claim that was allowed was:
26. A system for accessing data comprising….physical metadata elements….
So technically, they have patented a machine (i.e. system) that has physical metadata elements (i.e. memory bits) configured in a certain way. The infringer would not be someone who wrote software, but someone who ran software on a machine.
You can argue that this is a ridiculous distinction, and I would agree. Machines, however, are firmly patentable. So if you want to insist that software shouldn’t be patentable, that’s fine. The consequence, however, is a bunch of patents that claim physical machines and where it is that much harder to tell if you are infringing.