Lolz. Protection of IP is one of the key foundations that supports the global economy.
I may as well say I hate property rights and kick you out of your home so I can move in.
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BlackBerry Sues Typo Again Over Second-Generation iPhone Keyboard Case
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Lolz. Protection of IP is one of the key foundations that supports the global economy.
I may as well say I hate property rights and kick you out of your home so I can move in.
Tesla is giving away all their patents for free .. to increase the adoption of electric vehicles by their competitors..
Linux gives away their code for free.. so everyone can use it and enhance it.
none of these are going out of business anytime soon..
Not entirely true. BlackBerry won a temporary injunction based on the likelihood of success at trial. The trial is not concluded. The fine was because typo refused to honor the injunction. It was fined with a contempt of court sanction.
Please name a small startup or private inventor that has done this and is still in business.
Patents have quite different meanings for differently sized organisations. Linux and Tesla can open theirs up, because their financial resources and other capabilities allows them to do so. Small startups do not have this possibility and would run into severe issues if they would open their patents up.
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Count me in as being 100% in agreement with you. His views are somewhere between Pollyanna and Willie Wonka.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you are over 30, and he is under.
Say what?!
The guy's last comment was a suggestion that reform was needed, not throwing the baby out with the bathwater ... yet you're claiming he's Libertarian-minded and therefore impossible to reason with?
I happen to be libertarian myself - but that doesn't make me some kind of extreme anarchist. If you bothered to do your research, you'd learn that libertarians pretty much support exactly what the Founding Fathers of the U.S. wanted for the nation. (There's, technically, a "Constitution" political party as well, which would seem to be about the exact same thing. Except the basic difference between them and the Libertarian party is the Constitution party folks place some emphasis on religion in the mix. EG. They're a little "hung up" on the whole "In God We Trust" thing and the idea that our basic rights are "God given", etc.)
IMO, copyrights and patents are just legal constructs designed to ensure people get some recognition and fair compensation for coming up with a good new idea or invention. As long as they accomplish that without causing a lot of negatives, they're a good thing. The PROBLEM is, people are treating them like the ground rules to wage huge financial battles between companies in our courtrooms, and copyrights have become legal protectionism - guaranteeing someone a LIFETIME income off of a single work. It's like granting little monopolies to everyone who creates a piece of art or entertainment.
I think reform is BADLY needed, and it needs to start with some serious limits on how long copyrights are valid, and what's patentable.
The guy's last comment was a suggestion that reform was needed, not throwing the baby out with the bathwater ... yet you're claiming he's Libertarian-minded and therefore impossible to reason with?
I happen to be libertarian myself - but that doesn't make me some kind of extreme anarchist. If you bothered to do your research, you'd learn that libertarians pretty much support exactly what the Founding Fathers of the U.S. wanted for the nation. (There's, technically, a "Constitution" political party as well, which would seem to be about the exact same thing. Except the basic difference between them and the Libertarian party is the Constitution party folks place some emphasis on religion in the mix. EG. They're a little "hung up" on the whole "In God We Trust" thing and the idea that our basic rights are "God given", etc.)
IMO, copyrights and patents are just legal constructs designed to ensure people get some recognition and fair compensation for coming up with a good new idea or invention. As long as they accomplish that without causing a lot of negatives, they're a good thing. The PROBLEM is, people are treating them like the ground rules to wage huge financial battles between companies in our courtrooms, and copyrights have become legal protectionism - guaranteeing someone a LIFETIME income off of a single work. It's like granting little monopolies to everyone who creates a piece of art or entertainment.
I think reform is BADLY needed, and it needs to start with some serious limits on how long copyrights are valid, and what's patentable.
Probably because it's more than that.
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Seems like some other reasosns were brought up in some other replies in this thread.
How shallow minded you are. The compression/rebound, longevity (although i do question the Q10's performance with over 2200 pages of complaints over double key entry per press over on crackberry.com fan site), along with angled keys have been tested exhaustively!!
The same excuse you'd NOT state with Apple's trackpad. Make not mistake a LOT of their 44'000 IPs are specifically related to mobile device keyboards
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No they don't. They made a ****** little device that got email with a qwerty keyboard. Nothing else was around, so people took it up. But by no means was the BB a great device. It's UX was horrible.[/QUOTE]
^ their UX was VERY powerful and unfortunately as demand needed more options got VERY bad - that was on BBOS devices. BB10 is a completely different animal.
Also their perfected SYNC with PIM: Calendar, Contacts, Email, Tasks, and Notes with corporate servers IBM's Lotus Notes, MS Exchange, and GroupWise. NO OTHER CORPORATION or DEVICE DID THIS WIRELESSLY! Any others that could do this over USB did so with a static udpate which meant 5mins later you where out of the loop.
Great idea. Then no one will spend time or money to develop anything because someone else can just steal it for free.
I'm curious as to what Blackberry is claiming in terms of damages. If they are arguing that the Typo stole Blackberry sales -- well that is just silly.
Different categories of patents should be reformed to be more industry specific.
The patent trolls need to be more strictly policed and rules should be put in place to stop the more trollish practices of major industries while protecting the basic principles.
You shouldn't be able to hoard or monopolize or otherwise abuse the system.
They should moderate with awareness and not blindly have broad rules that can be manipulated. It should be judgment based on fairness not broad limits open to interpretation.
If some guy is making a tool and has a clever idea for mass application, and he invented some clever gauge on his item that others don't have. Thats great.
If its something like a company is clearly just buying up patents or patenting things just so competition can't do it thats bad.
Its quite easy to prove intent of business and to prove that yes you are using this for business and not to troll.
Its easy to moderate that, just change the rules. Hire more people. Make it a more prolific work force of those who manage and moderate this stuff.
Make it more like arbitration than suing. Use the law to ban the products and sue and make the rest more of an organic and user friendly process.
Make it easier for small business owners to have access to and understand this stuff to take power away from the enterprises and the wealthy and even the playing field.
It should be about rewarding people for ideas and nothing else.
The patent trolls need to be more strictly policed and rules should be put in place to stop the more trollish practices of major industries while protecting the basic principles.
You shouldn't be able to hoard or monopolize or otherwise abuse the system.
They should moderate with awareness and not blindly have broad rules that can be manipulated. It should be judgment based on fairness not broad limits open to interpretation.
If some guy is making a tool and has a clever idea for mass application, and he invented some clever gauge on his item that others don't have. Thats great.
If its something like a company is clearly just buying up patents or patenting things just so competition can't do it thats bad.
Its quite easy to prove intent of business and to prove that yes you are using this for business and not to troll.
Its easy to moderate that, just change the rules. Hire more people. Make it a more prolific work force of those who manage and moderate this stuff.
Make it more like arbitration than suing. Use the law to ban the products and sue and make the rest more of an organic and user friendly process.
Make it easier for small business owners to have access to and understand this stuff to take power away from the enterprises and the wealthy and even the playing field.
It should be about rewarding people for ideas and nothing else.
First of all, I truly appreciate your voicing of your opinion. That is very important.
However, let me tell you a couple of things. I am in government, and see some stuff from the inside. What people like you forget is that government is a broad generic term that encompasses a wide range of functions. It includes cops, who are underpaid to get shot. It includes librarian, people with Master degrees and very low wage, committed to their mission. It includes firemen, people who give up some of their freedom to save people. It includes bureaucrats, people who are trying to streamline the multitude of complexities of handling the problems of a society by a boring, alienating job. Is government really that bad (*)?
Government does not artificially grants privileges, it streamlines. And let me tell you, it is a very difficult task.
Most people fail to realize that for the most part the same rules that apply for a big company with several lawyers applies to the 18yo kid in the garage who creates the next Apple or the next Facebook. Do not forget this, ever. Government itself has its hands tied. You have no clue on how many things I have to be careful for just to pay a bill, or a service. You have no idea on how many calls we receive with strange, weird stuff, often conflicting with other callers, regulations or laws. I agree with you that regulations need a reform, that government has to improve, and that sometimes it doesnt do its job. But dont throw the baby out with the water. I saw weird stuff when I used to work in the private industry also. Its just part of the human way of living.
Let me give you an idiotic example. Without regulation, how do you stop a realtor from selling you a house that its crumbling down? How do you stop a construction company to build a house that lasts only five years and is dangerous? You cant. 99% of companies will be honest enough to build good, lasting houses. But that 1% is going to kill people, ruin lives. And free market (something I believe in) cant take care of it.
So, to go back to the original topic. A patent will certainly be a weapon in the hands of a big, evil corporation. But the same applies with Average Joe and his new product developed in his garage. A patent is a weapon, Average Joe can go, file, and be safe for the rest of his life.
Your view, in my opinion, fails to see the negative space of your patent removal option. If you remove patents, you are removing freedom. How? As of now, a patent will give the inventor (Microsoft or Average Joe doesnt matter) more options in the free market about his own product. The inventor can choose to keep it to himself for a few years, he can choose to open up his invention for free, he can choose to sell it, or to do as many do, use the patent for development and production. If you remove the patent, the inventor has no choice other than hoping that big corporations will not steal his product and make a profit out of it. Are you telling me that you want a government that removes choices? No one will argue against a reform of the patenting system. The fact that its not working as it should is clear. Richard Stallman, for example, is right in reminding that the US Constitution talks about patents and copyright as a mean to improve society and promote arts and sciences; I had a few email exchanges with him and I can say that his broader point is very important.
Just be careful for what youre asking for.
(*) this is not for you, but since this is a public forum Yes, there are cases were government officials dont do their job, or they do stuff that they shouldnt do. This includes cops, as it includes librarian. However, this goes for anything in which humans are involved: corporations, clubs, and even the Apostles.
Agree with you with the addition of one qualifier.
"It should be about rewarding people for implementing ideas and nothing else."
This is extremely captious. You forget an important detail: Mr X is an inventor, not an entrepreneur . They are two very different things, that require very different skills.
Example? Woz was an inventor and would've never run the company as an entrepreneur .
In my opinion, every keyboard looks like BlackBerry's.
I mean seriously: QWERTY. It's on every keyboard I've ever used! Even some typewriters. EVERYONE is copying BlackBerry's revolutionary and timeless keyboard. They should sue everyone. [/s]
I mean seriously: QWERTY. It's on every keyboard I've ever used! Even some typewriters. EVERYONE is copying BlackBerry's revolutionary and timeless keyboard. They should sue everyone. [/s]
There's more to it than just that. Otherwise every car out there is the same because they all have wheels.
It doesn't matter if you think it's really that bad or not if I am being forced to pay for it. You think that some bureaucrat sitting behind a desk making up some rule for that 1% of crumbling houses mentioned is going to save anyone? What company is going to knowingly build a crumbling house? They'd go out of business in no time doing something like that. Businesses exist to make money, and no one buys products for very long from bad companies. If I want to ensure that the house I want to purchase isn't going to crumble I should hire an inspector, not hope that my overlords have scared the company enough into following their made up rules. Government does not have it's hands tied. It does what it wants, when it wants with zero consequences.
I want you to live in peace, and I want you to allow me to do the same without interference.
A person should pay for something that they want or need. Libraries only exist because of government, there's a lot less value there as a result of the internet. And as for other positions you've mentioned, I have no need for any of it. If I did I would pay for it out of pocket. So can you please ask your colleagues in government to stop stealing my money to pay for things I don't want or need (like enforcement of patents)?
What, like rounded corners? Or just because the keys happen to be black? Not so sure your point is valid.
Think you better go back and reaccumulate yourself with all brands' smartphone qwerty keypads that were popular prior to the 2007 iPhone release: Nokia, Sony, LG, HTC, Motorola, etc. They're all basically designed the same way as the BB qwerty keypad. Just because your car has 4 tires and a steering wheel doesn't exactly make it unique. Here's a link: http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_fire-4386.php
This lawsuit has everything to with a BB-like qwerty keypad that happens to be a third-party accessory for the phone that bascially tore RIM down. BB can go pound sand.
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You know, the things that make a lot of people think of BlackBerry when they see it, those kind of things.