Posted on 04/01/2012 2:34:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
In 1853, the Supreme Court gave Samuel Morse some bad news. In O'Reilly v. Morse, the justices approved the inventor's patent for part of the telegraph that delivered the Morse code message "What Hath God Wrought?" but said he could not patent the idea of sending messages electronically across great distances. Ideas alone, the justices said, cannot be patented.
Morse's descendants should demand a rehearing. The standards for patents are so low that simply having an idea often justifies a patent. Morse wanted a patent to cover "electro-magnetism, however developed, for marking or printing intelligible characters, signs, letters, at any distance, being a new application of that power of which I claim to be the first inventor or discoverer."
This would have been a patent for all uses of the telegraph—and would also have included the Internet. The 19th-century justices refused to block progress through an overbroad patent: "For aught that we now know some future inventor, in the onward march of science may discover a mode of writing or printing at a distance by means of the electric or galvanic current, without using any part of the process or combination set forth in the plaintiff's specification."
Under today's looser standards, Morse should own the Web. Companies now seek patents for the slimmest of ideas. Google has filed to patent the idea of "advertising based on environmental conditions." This would target advertising based on sensors in smart phones indicating the temperature and humidity so it could deliver relevant ads for air conditioners versus winter coats.
The patent explosion began in the mid-1990s, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ended the requirement that patents specifically define inventions. Now, business processes and algorithms are routinely patented, making it hard to innovate with products like mobile devices without running
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2866406/posts
This thread from the other day honored a 100-year-old woman who honorably served her country as a radio operator long ago.
The stupid journalist quoted her as saying that she received Morris code.
(That is actually Cooper and his family in the corner under the urn. Morse’s self portrait is looking over the lady’s shoulder at a print.)
Things being patented have to be “reduced to practice”. Otherwise, Gene Roddenbery could have patented the transporter.
Even if Morse did patent “the Web”, patents expire after 17 years.
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Gee, new methods for doing things with computers would be processes. However, naked ideas and laws of nature are not patentable. Google it...
Software patents are just as stupid as Morse trying to patent the use of electromagnetism.
David Mcollough’s latest book THE GREATER JOURNEY is an enjoyable read about Americans living in Paris from the 1830’s to 1900, and tells the story of this picture. I had no idea that Morse was such a great artist before he turned inventor.
I just finished "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World". If you like history I highly recommend it.
Doesn’t Franklin Raines hold the patent for Cap and Trade?
He never had to produce a working model; it was just an idea sketched out.
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