Bob Sullivan has an interesting article on business and Internet patents up at MSNBC.
Apparently, in 1999 some enterprising inventor has sued the American Red Cross for accepting donations over their web page.
The article then quotes a patent lawyer who "finds this whole kind of thing disturbing" because it "increases people's distrust and frustration with the legal system".
He's right. I think it's fair to say that suing the Red Cross for accepting donations won't increase popular support for the patent system.
It also won't help if you hear that somebody claims to own the idea of Internet commerce, even if that claim won't hold in court. The ability to pay a lot of money and win defending a patent law suit is very different from not being bothered with ridiculous patent claims in the first place.
Both articles above found at Slashdot.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at May 4, 2004 01:43 PM | TrackBack