http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/07/1920243

It seems that some more interesting parties have already blown some pretty big holes in Apples multi-touch patent. Ah well, it just goes to further prove how boned our patent system is.

Its mentioned here http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...538#post253538

[edit]Rumor: "Apple asked Google not to use multi-touch in Android, and Google complied"

http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/09/ap...ogle-complied/[/edit]

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/08/e...-patent-infri/

hurhurhur. It looks like Apple will be getting a dose of their own medicine now. I think Palm will be laughing their way to the bank on this one.

Hopefully this will put the end to multitouch patents and open it up for everyone. So anyone can use multitouch without having to pay anything or worry about being sued.

Quite possibly. The same thing that happened to RIM where wireless push email has become widely available over the last 5 years could happen to Apple and multitouch.

i am going to patent a method for patenting multiple multitouch patent applications.

lol. Honestly, the whole patent system right now is so boned beyond mention that they need to scrap it and start from the bottom up. Of course, given how fast technology is moving these days, what's the point? By the time you get the patent, the technology is already obsolete. Plus things are FAR too restrictive and innovation would explode if technology patents were either severely restricted or eliminated.

Some say things would get ugly. I don't really think they would. Sure, there would be the whole goldrush mentality for a few years, after which you'd see things settle down into a more manageable development curve. The only reason there'd be a goldrush of sorts is that the freeing up of tech patents would allow the innovation curve to flow out from behind it's dam of patents and settle into a more natural flow again instead of the damed up trickle we get now.

The part that will keep this from happening is all the companies who want to do everything imaginable to kill all competition and become a monopoly. With no tech patents, or no patents at all, period, it'd be every man for himself and you'd either have to be an innovator and a leader in quality and would be forced to truly compete or die.

That's great for us, and it's even better for the companies who can pull it off. For one, it'd weed out the weak and bad companies and boost the strong and good companies.

I personally feel that patents and copyrghts are outdated now. Kinda like unions, they had their initial purposes (and it was a great purpose and reasoning) but now they've outgrown their purpose or have been so distorted that they are no longer needed like they were use to. I think they're still needed to a certain extent. But the opposite needs to be occuring. Instead of increasing duration, decrease the duration. And if your not doing anything with the patent (attempting to make some progress like finding funding or whatever) then it goes into public domain in X amount of years. It's been shown time and time again that patents and copyrights are doing the opposite of what they're intended to do (protect the inventors from being bullied by big companies).

I guess another method would be to set it up so that the lawyer you hire to sue others for patent/copyright infringement can only be paid as much as much as the defense can pay :P (haha that would be funny and probably a bad idea).

It's like that in China right now, and alot of technology is coming out of there (lots of PMPs that we may never see).

Laughing Man: Speaking of lawyer pay, since lawyers are only in it for the big bucks. (lawyers that actually want to help people out of the kindness of their heart don't exist!) If you limited lawyers to only earning a small wage, a large majority of lawsuits would vanish as lawyers jumped ship to another career. Of course, given that lawyers run this country, that'll never happen. It's one of the same reasons the patent system has been allowed to become the mess it is.

Another huge reason there hasn't been any change in the patent and copyright system, and likely never will be is because the government makes a FORTUNE on the patent and trademark (and copyright) system. Hence why they haven't bothered to try and fix the system. Seriously. Why shut down a system, broken or otherwise, that's making you a mint?

Has anyone actually patented patent itself yet?