Summary: Further analysis of Amazon's infamous "Studio Arrangement" patent and some thoughts from Linus Torvalds

A

new article about Amazon explains how it got a patent on one of the most basic things humanly conceivable -- something that even a small child can come up with.

The patent examiner sat down at her desk and pulled up the next item on her examination docket. Patent application 13/292,359. "Studio Arrangement."

Amazon has many outrageous patents and the above is just one of the latest -- a patent which we mentioned here before. It is quite noteworthy that Mr. Torvalds, who has been against software patents for as long as we know (although his name is on some patents), says that this is "bullshit", but the system is hard to change (that's true). To quote a new article about it:

Torvalds recovered his plucky declamatory nature when asked about patents:

It's all bullshit, sane people know it's bullshit, but making real change is difficult. Politically, the US patent system also tends to help US companies, because once you get into a court of law, it's not about the law any more (and it's certainly not about the patent, which is crap and which neither the judge, the lawyers, nor the jury will understand anyway), and it's much easier to sell as an "us vs. them" story.

How do I love patents? Let me count the ways.

The recent Tesla nonsense showed some changing perceptions around patents and we are eager to cover the issue more often in the coming months. The focus will be on scope, not trolls. Large corporations prefer to shift focus to the latter because it suits them better and ensures that no real reform is ever attained. ⬆