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Darrin, then all I can surmise is that you're pretty ty at invention usable items!!!
I have four patents and one pending, weatherboy.
Actually, two of my inventions have provided for 30+ employees and their families for the past decade. Can you claim that, weatherboy?
This obviously begs the question: what are your inventions?
They're all software-related.
Nope, you got me beat there. Kudos, Edison.
What are your inventions?
Do 419 letters count as inventions?
No answer, Darrin? I'm curious.
If Darrin works for a software company he might not hold the patents outright and might have limited his right to discuss them contractually.
Plus, if Darrin gave you a straightforward answer, someone might be able to identify him. Like, say, his employer. I can definitely see discretion being the better part of valor here.
Just saw this today. Timely.http://www.cracked.com/article_18808...#ixzz11tJho6Wp7 Reasons Computer Glitches Won't Go Away (Ever)
#3. Software Patents
One of the things proponents of free open-source software like to push is the idea that any regular Tom, , or Harry with an idea can add his knowledge and experience to the programs he uses, send it upstream to the creators and have the fruits of his efforts enjoyed by everyone. But in the real world (America), trying to do this will get your ass sued, because anybody could claim that you're stealing his brilliant ideas, such as clicking things without having to click on them again.
The answer to many of life's problems seems to be "because lawyers love money."
In 1991, the patent office lost its taxpayer funding, at which point its patent criteria changed from "Any new and useful art, machine, manufacture or composition of matter" to "Any idea whatsoever for which applicable patent fees are paid" (as Cracked has covered before).
For example, Sega holds a patent on the concept of "using a floating arrow to direct the player," meaning that any game that wants to point at a door, such as Bioshock, has to pony up money to Sega.
Yet, somehow, they manage to avoid paying royalties to the Rand Estate.
You don't even have to have invented the thing you're suing people for. Companies that buy the assets of bankrupted software companies, known as "patent trolls," make a business out of doing nothing but buying the rights to patents on things similar to something that's being done by a bigger company, then forcing the bigger company to either pay up or remove whatever it is the patent troll claims to have a patent on.
For example, in 2003 Microsoft changed Internet Explorer so that you had to click inside any part of the page using a plug-in (such as Flash) before you could use it. This wasn't because Microsoft wanted to -- it had to do this to sidestep a patent on "not clicking on things before you can use them" that a patent troll called Eolas claimed was being infringed.
Which ironically sounds more like a patent elf.
In 2007, Microsoft restored IE to the way it had worked before -- after paying Eolas several million dollars to "license their technology."
A whole lot of the innovation you're using now -- including the basics of your operating system that were developed, not by Microsoft or Apple but by Xerox -- happened before the era of software patents. Otherwise, those innovations may never have happened at all. Who can afford to pay for every little facet of a system that happens to be similar to what someone else invented?
Darrin is causing my computer to glitch? Sounds about right.
Quick, someone look up the patent on embedded youtube.
Correct. When you work for someone, your work becomes their property. Then there is the proprietary aspect.
Doesn't that depend on whether he makes the software on company time or not?
Yes, but that was the intent of my statement. Work related. Even if it's not company time, I believe that you cannot gain profit if your patent comes from company proprietary information.
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