chilling: Microsoft's attack on Barnes and Noble (i.e. Android)

[Duncan MacGregor]

It seems that a lot of this would be solved by insisting on comprehensive 
documentation on application, and a very short time for protection (at least 
for software), say, a year.

Dunc



On November 26, 2011 07:00:30 AM you wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 3:00 AM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > This is story is a couple of weeks old, but I'm just getting around to
> > reading it now.
> > 
> > I found it very interesting and infuriating:
> >  <http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2011111122291296>
> > 
> > Microsoft is threatening B&N via very stupid / trivial patents.  Threats
> > include trying to block Nook imports into the US.
> 
> Man, if you get down to it, aren't ALL patents stupid on some level?
> I've been reading a lot about invention lately, and I've watched
> several BBC series on the history of science, math, and so on. It
> seems to me that everything is based on someone's prior work, and not
> in some trivial way. Babbage's computer is based on Jacquard's Loom
> and so on, down through history. Invention is a communal effort, the
> myth of the lone inventor is just that. Patents only seem to represent
> who got to a lawyer first.
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