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[News] IBM 'Steals' the Idea of Using Colour Pen

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IBM Patents Changing Color of E-Mail Text

,----[ Quote ]
| "Last week, the USPTO granted IBM a patent for its System and method for 
| comprehensive automatic color customization in an email message based on 
| cultural perspective. So what exactly did the four Big Blue inventors come up 
| with? IBM explains: 'For example, an email created in the U.S. in red font to 
| indicate urgency or emphasis might be mapped to a more appropriate color 
| (e.g., blue or black) for sending to Korea.' IBM took advantage of the 
| USPTO's Accelerated Examination Program to fast-track the patent's approval. 
| BTW, if you missed the 2006 press release, IBM boasted it was 'holding itself 
| to a higher standard than any law requires because it's urgent that patent 
| quality is improved.'"         
`----

http://slashdot.org/submission/1001313/IBM-Patents-Changing-Color-of-E-Mail-Text

Stealing Free - from open standards

,----[ Quote ]
| Either EU remains committed to open standards or the term "open standards" 
| need to be removed from the new interoperability framework decision. Perhaps 
| just standards as in formal standards from ISO would be more adequate? Open 
| standards should not be stolen from the winning innovative Internet realm 
| just because the greed of those that prefer royalty based industry standards.    
| 
| [...]
| 
| " The term "open" is usually restricted to royalty-free technologies while 
| the term "standard" is sometimes restricted to technologies approved by 
| formalized committees that are open to participation by all interested 
| parties and operate on a consensus basis." (at least still)   
`----

http://bosson.blogspot.com/2009/05/stealing-free-from-open-standards.html


Recent:

IBM's Wishlist Includes A Patent On Avatars' Wishlists

,----[ Quote ]
| theodp writes "In 2006, IBM boasted it was 'holding itself to a higher
| standard than any law requires because it's urgent that patent quality is
| improved.' On Thursday, the USPTO revealed that IBM was seeking a patent for
| Controlling and Using Virtual Universe Wish Lists. The product of six IBM
| inventors, Big Blue explained that a 'virtual wish list device determines an
| item in a virtual universe that is desired by an avatar.' Led by Chief Avatar
| Sam Palmisano, IBM is still drinking the virtual world Kool-Aid, dropping
| $80,000 to host a recent Second Life-based conference for 200 or so members
| of the IBM Academy of Technology. IBM indicated the virtual venue was chosen
| to avoid sending 'the wrong kind of message' (pdf) that something like a
| $400,000 real-world meeting might send during troubled economic times."
`----

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090421/1152534596.shtml


IBM Patents Removing Leading/Trailing Blanks

,----[ Quote ]
| theodp writes "With its example of how ' John Doe ' could be saved in a
| database as 'John Doe' (i.e., without leading or trailing blanks), purported
| patent reformer IBM dazzled the USPTO enough to earn Big Blue a patent last
| Tuesday for Automatically removing leading and trailing space characters from
| data being entered into a database system . The three IBM 'inventors' are
| also seeking a related patent for Retrieving data from a database system
| without leading and trailing space characters. Hey, if the patent system
| ain't broke, don't fix it!"
`----

http://techdirt.com/articles/20090108/0230453331.shtml
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