taint.org: Justin Mason’s Weblog

Patents: This has come up twice recently in discussions of software patenting, so it’s worth posting a blog entry as a note.

There’s a common misconception that a patenter does not necessarily need to enforce a patent in the courts, for it to remain valid. This isn’t true in the US at least, where there is the legal doctrine of ‘laches’, defined as follows in the Law.com dictionary:

Laches - the legal doctrine that a legal right or claim will not be enforced or allowed if a long delay in asserting the right or claim has prejudiced the adverse party (hurt the opponent) as a sort of ‘legal ambush’.

The Bohan Mathers law firm have a good paragraph explaining this:

…the patent holder has an obligation to protect and defend the rights granted under patent law. Just as permitting the public to freely cross one’s property may lead to the permanent establishment of a public right of way and the diminishment of one’s property rights, so the knowing failure to enforce one’s patent rights (one legal term for this is laches) against infringement by others may result in the forfeiture of some or all of the rights granted in a particular patent.

See also this and this page for discussion of cases where it was relevant. It seems by no means clear-cut, but the doctrine is there.

Tags: blog, claim, doctrine, entry, laches, law, patent, patents, property, right, software

Web: I link-blogged this, but it’s generated some email already, so it deserves a proper posting.

One thing you quickly learn about IBM where software patents are concerned, is that if IBM Research is making noise about a new software technique, they’ve probably patented it already. A few years ago, IBM was keen on HTTP transcoding — rewriting web content in a proxy, to be more suitable for display and access from less-capable devices, like PDAs and mobile phones.

So I probably should not have been surprised today when I came across USPTO patent 6,886,013, which is an IBM patent on a ‘HTTP caching proxy to filter and control display of data in a web browser’. It was applied for on Sep 11 1997, and finally granted on Apr 26 of this year.

The first claim covers:

1. A method of controlling presentation on a client of a Web document formatted according to a markup language and supported on a server, the client including a browser and connectable to the server via a computer network, the method comprising the steps of:

   as the Web document is received on the client, parsing the Web document to identify formatting information;

   altering the formatting information to modify at least one display characteristic of the Web document; and

   passing the Web document to the browser for display.

Notice that there’s actually no mention of a HTTP proxy there — in other words, an in-browser rewriting element, such as Greasemonkey or Trixie may be covered by that claim. However, the claim does indicate that the document is passed from the ‘client’ to the ‘browser’, so perhaps having the ‘client’ inside the ‘browser’ evades that.

It appears this really wasn’t original research even when the patent was applied for — there’s probable prior art, even if the patent itself doesn’t cite it. For example, WWW4 in 1995 included Application-Specific Proxy Servers as HTTP Stream Transducers, which discusses ‘transduction’ of the HTTP traffic and gives an example of ‘A “rewriting” OreO (transducer element) that encapsulates each anchor inside the Netscape Blink extension, making anchors easier to spot on monochrome displays’. On top of that, Craig Hughes notes that his ’senior project at Stanford in 1992 was an implementation of a content-modifying HTTP proxy. It re-worked HTML in http streams to add some markup to enable full navigability through touch screen or voice control, for screen-only kiosks.’

Add this to the ever-growing list of over-broad software patents.

Tags: browser, claim, client, display, document, http, ibm, patent, proxy, web

Iraq: Iraqi who gave MI6 45-minute claim says it was a ‘crock of shit’. Gotta love that no-holds-barred style…

Tags: claim, crock, gotta, iraq, love, minute, shit, style

Yahoo!: Finns Scratch Heads Over N.Korea Porn Claim:

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish officials were at a loss to explain an allegation made on Thursday by a U.S. official that North Korea has been caught trying to sell pornography in the small Nordic country. ‘It sounds strange. It sounds wild,’ an official at the Foreign Ministry told Reuters.

U.S. Ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer made the comments earlier on Thursday to the National Press Club in Canberra, saying North Korea was using a ‘mafia-like’ business model to make up a revenue shortfall when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s.

Found on MemeFirst, which looks like a pretty nifty site. Now to see if I can rig up RSS for it. One of the MemeFirst culprits seems to be Stefan Geens, who also has a blog; he reviews ‘How The Irish Saved Civilization’ in fine style, comparing the annotations of the medieval Hibernian monks to blogging. hmm…

He’s stuck in Dublin, right now, trying to figure out a way to get hold of some bandwidth. I wish him luck.

Tags: claim, finns, heads, memefirst, official, porn, reuters, scratch, thursday, yahoo

Good to see the US troops in Baghdad were kept busy keeping an eye on the important stuff — like surrounding the Oil Ministry building with 50 tanks and snipers, while the largest collection of antiquities in the Middle East got trashed. That’s keeping your priorities straight!

The imposing building in the Al-Mustarisiya quarter is guarded by around 50 US tanks which block every entrance, while sharpshooters are positioned on the roof and in the windows.

The curious onlooker is clearly unwelcome. Any motorist who drifts within a few metres of the main entrance is told to leave immediately.

Residents noted that the irrigation ministry, just next door, was torched.

(Sydney Morning Herald) (more in attached mail).

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 08:07:44 -0000
From: “uncle_slacky” (spam-protected)
To: (spam-protected)
Subject: Re: Baghdad looting

— In (spam-protected) Roy Stilling (spam-protected) wrote:

> On “Yesterday in Parliament” yesterday, one of the awkward squad MPs
> made the claim that while the mob was looting Iraq’s museums and
> public buildings, US forces guarded one ministry only - the Oil
> Ministry. Anyone seen any corroboration of that claim anywhere?

A quick News Google indicates, for example:

Oil ministry an untouched building in ravaged Baghdad http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/16/1050172643895.html

Since US forces rolled into central Baghdad a week ago, one of the sole public buildings untouched by looters has been Iraq’s massive oil ministry, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by troops.

The imposing building in the Al-Mustarisiya quarter is guarded by around 50 US tanks which block every entrance, while sharpshooters are positioned on the roof and in the windows.

The curious onlooker is clearly unwelcome. Any motorist who drifts within a few metres of the main entrance is told to leave immediately.

Baghdad residents have complained that US troops should do more to protect against the looters, most of them Shi’ite Muslims repressed by Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated regime who live in the vast slum known as Saddam City on the northern outskirts.

But while museums, banks, hotels and libraries have been ransacked, the oil ministry remains secure.

The symbolism is loaded, considering how vehemently the United States and Britain denied war opponents’ accusations that the campaign to oust Saddam was driven by oil lust.

“They came from the other side of the world. Do you believe they’re going to do much for me? They’ve just come for the oil,” fumed Salam Mohammad Hassan, a doctor who lives near the ministry.

Residents noted that the irrigation ministry, just next door, was torched.

US forces, who say they cannot prevent looting across the capital of five million, respond that they are not trying to seize Iraq’s oil resources but preserve them.

“Anyone who says we’re protecting this ministry to steal Iraqi oil doesn’t know what’s really going on in this country,” US Captain Scott McDonald told AFP at the ministry gates.

The United States, he said, is only safeguarding Iraq’s potential which would otherwise be considered game for looters.

“Oil belongs to the Iraqi people; it’s their property. It must be protected because it’ll go, indirectly, to build schools and hospitals,” he said.

McDonald said a few looters had managed to sneak into the ministry- cum-fortress after US troops entered Baghdad. A few offices were robbed but nearly all files and archives remain intact, he said.

Coalition forces also say they control all of Iraq’s oilfields.

Amnesty International has criticised the attention on controlling oilfields, which it said must have taken “much planning and resources.”

“However, there is scarce evidence of similar levels of planning and allocation of resources for securing public and other institutions essential for the survival and well-being of the population,” the London-based rights group said.

Iraq has the world’s largest oil resources after Saudi Arabia, with 112 billion barrels of proven reserves.

Before the start of the war, Iraq was producing about 2.5 million barrels a day, of which just under two million were exported under UN supervision through the “oil-for-food” program.

In front of the oil ministry, a young Iraqi sat down in hopes of selling cigarettes.

“Before, lots of people would stop here to buy from me, that’s why I’ve kept coming. But there hasn’t been anyone for a few days.”

Upon saying that, he was kicked out unceremoniously by a soldier.

*

and going back to last week, from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2547131,00.html

“U.S. troops occupied the Oil Ministry. But the nine-story Ministry of Transport building was gutted by fire, as was the Iraqi Olympic headquarters, while the Ministry of Education was partially burned. Near the Interior Ministry, the office building of Saddam Hussein’s son Odai stood damaged, its upper floors blackened.”

and from

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2556458,00.html

“The Oil Ministry also seemed intact with a heavy U.S. military presence inside.”

BTW these reports are duplicated on many other news sites, they’re not just the product of the Grauniad’s fevered imagination…

Rob

Tags: building, claim, entrance, ministry, motorist, oil, onlooker, quarter, roof, yesterday

SCO sues IBM (via Slashdot) . Talk about self-immolation: sue IBM, of all companies, with an intellectual property case. One SCO claim:

‘It is not possible for Linux to rapidly reach Unix performance standards for complete enterprise functionality without the misappropriation of Unix code.’

Apart from the fact that SMP is just not a state-of-the-art thing any more; things move on! Perhaps if SCO/Novell/USL hadn’t sat on their hands for 10 years, swapping IP and suing BSDI, they’d still be in the game. Anyway, here’s what the analysts think:

‘It’s a fairly end-of-life move for the stockholders and managers of that company,’ said Jonathan Eunice, an Illuminata analyst. ‘Really what beat SCO is not any problem with what IBM did; it’s what the market decided. This is a way of salvaging value out of the SCO franchise they can’t get by winning in the marketplace.’

He said it.

Tags: case, claim, ibm, linux, performance, property, sco, slashdot, talk, unix

SiliconRepublic: Ireland second last in Europe for broadband. But I think regular readers will know that ;) ‘Ireland’s already shaky claim to the title European digital hub was looking even more risible than usual today, following the latest internet penetration survey, which shows us to be languishing in second last place out of 16 European countries in terms of broadband internet penetration. ‘

The usual story — with quotes from IO’s Dave Long — and that’s not surprising. I should imagine things will improve a lot this year, now that the ComReg seems a little more on the job, and eircom have halved their prices.

But the really interesting thing is this: ‘Among the survey’s other findings were that 7.5pc (12 million) of all European households now subscribed to a broadband internet service. 6.3 million customers signed up for broadband for the first time in 2002 — an increase of 55pc over 2001. … It further predicted that a further 7.2 million European homes will acquire broadband for the first time this year, bringing the total to 19.1 million or 11.9pc of total households.’

That’s excellent news, and wipes out the FUD put about by some telcos (guess which ones) that there just isn’t demand in the current market. Clearly there is strong demand throughout the rest of Europe — and there really isn’t much difference between there and here. In fact, if anything, I reckon there would be more demand here, based on the take-up of other high-tech accessories like mobile phones and games consoles.

Tags: broadband, claim, demand, internet, last, penetration, siliconrepublic, survey, time, year