Bonum Certa Men Certa

Patents Roundup: In Re Bilski, Amazon, WebM, and Biotech Patents

Biotech



Summary: Important news from all around the Web, regarding patents (monopolies) on software and on life in particular

In Re Bilski Delays



AS we noted yesterday, the important decision on the Bilski case is not here yet. Patently-O commentators believe that "the delay might indicate (1) that the court will issue multiple opinions (concurrences or dissents); or (2) that the decision will be especially long."



Progressive people at the Against Monopoly Web site opine that "the Court is waiting until the end of the term to release" this decision:

They are probably right to be. A delay this long in the decision most likely means that the Court is waiting until the end of the term to release it - which they traditionally do for what the Justices consider to be their most important and/or far reaching decisions of the year.

It may also be the case that there are either important dissents or concurring opinions on the case, thus prompting a delay with back and forth rewrites and revisions to the final decisions. (Though one should recall that at oral arguments, the Justices seemed universally critical to the idea of broad-based business method patents.)


Feld's contribution to the good cause is mentioned alongside very long comments here and here.

Reforms or revolutions that actually support the interests of the populist movement -- so to speak -- are rather rare. The patent system has been perturbed and perverted beyond recognition now that even biology becomes a person's monopoly.

Amazon Still Misguided



Over in the United States, the company behind the notorious one-click shopping patent is now trying to patent "online orders with a nod or a smile," to put it the way TechFlash did: [via]

Amazon.com is famous for its 1-Click ordering system. But what about 1-Nod ordering? Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is seeking a patent on a system that would let people make purchases with a nod, a smile or even a raise of the eyebrow.

Called "Movement recognition as input mechanism," it envisions a computing device that could interpret certain facial expressions and enhance or potentially replace "conventional input devices such as keypads and touch screen."


The many managers that Amazon hired from Microsoft are hopefully not ruining the company from the inside.

WebM and Software Patents



It is still being argued that Google has not resolved patent issues around WebM. LWN had what is now an out-of-date discussion considering that Google resolved the issues around the WebM licence. Alastair Otter and Linux Journal wrote about this too.

Patents of Life or Death



It is looking iffy for patent law in Australia, where software patents are mostly possible to sneak into the registry and gene patents too become a controversial debate. One Australian reader/contributor told us that in the Australian press there is a major discussion on the subject. From the ABC Web site (the Australian ABC, not the US-based one):

ELEANOR HALL: Australia's biotechnology industry is warning that the court challenge being launched today against the patenting of human genetic material could kill off investment in the industry.

Lawyers have begun legal action against four biotechnology companies, which co-own the patent to the breast cancer gene.

They say companies shouldn't have the right to commercialise the human body.

But representatives of the biotechnology industry say the landmark legal case could stifle innovation and investment in important medical research.


Malicious companies like Monsanto have a stake in it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. These patents impede development, they don't facilitate it. These patents facilitate massive profits (hoarding) by impeding competition.

Recent Techrights' Posts

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Photos from yesterday evening [...] It looks like it was a very successful event
 
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If you're going to viciously attack somebody, make sure your arguments are rock-solid
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The capacity of the place is about 900
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Imagine wanting to find what Torvalds has just said or what has just been released
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interest in Software Freedom must have grown
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The EPO started the SLAPPs after we had published a few hundreds of articles; we've since then published close to 6,000 because the attacks on us emboldened insiders to help us
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Without them, we have little left for controlling our lives
"They missed a great opportunity to shut up." -Jacques Chirac
Brett Wilson LLP has been trying to cheat the legal system many times
Harassment evidence: Switzerland, overcrowded fitness and yoga centers, incompetence and racism in accident response
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Forbes Already Stopped Being a News Sites. Now It's a Spam and Propaganda Platform for "Paying Partners" (Companies).
news from Forbes became very scarce
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Underpaid, unqualified, inexperienced and incompatible people are already recruited to replace veteran examiners
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The Editor in Chief is like a Microsoft plant
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Links for the day
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Microsoft Does Not Deny That Large Retailers Like Walmart, Costco and Target Are Giving Up on XBox (and Not Stocking It)
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We'll Encourage Richard Stallman to Talk About Software Patents at the EPO Next Week When He Visits Munich (EPO Headquarters)
Go listen to Richard Stahlmann
Investigative Journalism Protects Society From Corruption, Crimes Against Women, Assaults on Civil Society
"what is the point of men doing military practice to defend a system that is so rotten?"
Swiss pimp usurping reputation of legendary Tissot boss Francois Thiébaud from France (BaselWorld, SWATCH Group SA)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Paris 'Love Nest' & Debian Outreachy: from Lycée Lakanal to ENS Cachan, Cr@ns, nepotism
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk in 3 Hours, Then in the Technical University of Munich (Germany) Next Week
Richard Stallman at TUM on 21.10.2025 18:00, MW2001
Arnaud Parreaux lost case defending rogue employer
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Mathieu Elias Parreaux declared bankrupt in Switzerland
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Breakdown of the Rule of Law and Patent Law in the European Union (EU)
The EPO cannot recruit suitably qualified patent examiners this way, let alone retain them
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Society simply cannot advance when too many people self-censor
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At this stage, Brett Wilson LLP is in my humble opinion acting in contempt of the Court
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defending Microsoft while attacking this site
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It seems abundantly clear that Google News and Google in general participates in the slop epidemic
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Over at Tux Machines...
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Pocock is being demonised for the same reasons and by the same people who attack RMS
Your Typical Anti-Richard Stallman (RMS) Cancellist
"About the RMS cancellation"
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Why did he wait until the night before?
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People are safer if they control their own computing
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Go have a look
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The Web isn't built or based around open Web standards anymore. It's centered around user-agent.
Microsoft as a Golden Cage
"I was laid off by Microsoft and can't find a job. I'm weeks away from giving up my apartment and moving across the country to live with family."
Weekend Discussion About How IBM's Bluewashing of Red Hat Will Cause "Enshittification" for Users
"I worked at a software company that was acquired by IBM so I knew it was game over for RedHat the day they were acquired"
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Law360 or Law.com are about as mainstream as one can get in that "sector" (litigation 'industry')
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The Web is a mess and "Linux" or "Ubuntu" sites became part of the problem
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The talk is 25 hours away and we see some QR code for it
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Links for the day
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Microsoft is not a software company, it's a spying agency that uses software to collect data
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Over at Tux Machines...
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GNU/Linux is more important than ever in this dystopian world
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in Geminispace it's rather safe to assume everyone is into BSD, GNU/Linux, and sometimes retro