Just wait until they try to enforce that patent - it will be found invalid in no time.
But our government is NOT corrupt. Nosiree!
Not a bit. Not a smidgen of corruption.
I’m going to patent the idea of a bunny wearing a pancake on his head. There just couldn’t be any prior art to that!
There must be something I don’t understand about this patent. How can you patent and license the most generic layout in the world? That’s like seeking a ‘patent’ for black letters on a white background. Isn’t it?
Great idea!! Shhhh, don’t tell ANYONE. I’m off to the patent office to apply for one for photographing yourself at arm’s length!
And another one for photographs with celebrities!!
I’m rich! I’m rich!
I am going to patent Forum posting text on a white background and the demand John Randerson pay me for every post on FreeRepublic....
(sarc)
I am a photographer, and this is THE defacto layout of a photo studio (more or less). The 85mm lens is a standard portrait lens when used several meters from the subject. This is simply silly.
seems racist
Patent trolls are some of the worst vermin that have ever existed. In the few times I have applied and tried for patents it’s just not worth it for the small business most of the time. You have to be the first and the best. There’s always someone with bigger and more lawyers who will sue you and get the patent anyway. Lawyers. What’s 435 lawyers at the bottom of a swamp??? (answer below)...
On the other hand, the comb-over is patented.
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Washington DC
Notice my words are black on a white background?
Just don’t take a screenshot of what I posted and you’ll be OK.
I would patent photography against a black background, but am sure I would be called racist.
Hey!
Is “Typing against a white background” still available?
The purpose of affirmative action is to place people with IQs of 85 into positions for which they are completely unqualified.
Any questions?
Here’s what they actually patented (never trust a journalist). Eliminate or change any of the following details and you’re outside the scope of their patent:
1. A studio arrangement, comprising:
a background comprising a white cyclorama;
a front light source positioned in a longitudinal axis intersecting the background, the longitudinal axis further being substantially perpendicular to a surface of the white cyclorama;
an image capture position located between the background and the front light source in the longitudinal axis, the image capture position comprising at least one image capture device equipped with an eighty-five millimeter lens, the at least one image capture device further configured with an ISO setting of about three hundred twenty and an f-stop value of about 5.6;
an elevated platform positioned between the image capture position and the background in the longitudinal axis, the front light source being directed toward a subject on the elevated platform;
a first rear light source aimed at the background and positioned between the elevated platform and the background in the longitudinal axis, the first rear light source positioned below a top surface of the elevated platform and oriented at an upward angle relative to a floor level;
a second rear light source aimed at the background and positioned between the elevated platform and the background in the longitudinal axis, the second rear light source positioned above the top surface of the elevated platform and oriented at a downward angle relative to the floor level;
a third rear light source aimed at the background and positioned in a lateral axis intersecting the elevated platform and being substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, the third rear light source further positioned adjacent to a side of the elevated platform; and
a fourth rear light source aimed at the background and positioned in the lateral axis adjacent to an opposing side of the elevated platform relative to the third rear light source; wherein
a top surface of the elevated platform reflects light emanating from the background such that the elevated platform appears white and a rear edge of the elevated platform is substantially imperceptible to the image capture device; and
the first rear light source, the second rear light source, the third rear light source, and the fourth rear light source comprise a combined intensity greater than the front light source according to about a 10:3 ratio.
Will Amazon really attempt to see this patent enforced against all the photographers who use this theme? I doubt it. As wide ranging as this seems on the surface of things, it is only their biggest competitors that will be subject to enforcement, and they have the clout to nullify this in court if they so choose. Or they could adjust their background color by one hex code toward gray/off white.
I am gong to patient the word “Love”.
What the USPTO SHOULD DO is sue Amazon for filing such a STUPID application and wasting their time. Our deficits are BIG ENOUGH, without the help of this crap.
From interview with Donald Knuth, Dr. Dobbs Journal April 1996
DK: The first thing I would say is that when you write a program,
think of it primarily as a work of literature. You’re
trying to write something that human beings are going to
read. Don’t think of it primarily as something a computer
is going to follow. The more effective you are at making
your program readable, the more effective it’s going to be:
You’ll understand it today, you’ll understand it next week,
and your successors who are going to maintain and modify
it will understand it.
Secondly, ideas that are mathematical in nature should be
the property of the world and not of the individual who
thinks of the theorem. I’d prefer that all but the most sophisticated algorithms be made public and that everybody
use them, and not that every time you use such-and-such a
method you should pay a nano-penny to some fund.
I wrote an open letter to the head of the U.S. Patent Commission,
published in the current printing of the CWEB
manual. I said, ‘What if lawyers were to have rights to their
precedents? What if people had patents on words of the
English language, and every author who wanted to write
a novel would have to check which words they were using
and pay royalties to the owners of those words? Can’t you
see how obvious it is that the quality of the legal system and the quality of published books would go down? Because
you’re taking away the building blocks that people need to
do their job.’
The basic building blocks that software designers need to
do their jobs are algorithms and languages and mathematics.
It’s traditionally impossible to patent a mathematical
formula, for very good reason. Anyone who would wish to
calculate the area of a circle and use r2 should have to pay
a royalty for that: It’s exact, it’s a universal thing. I think
that algorithms should be in exactly the same category. Algorithms
are mathematics.
Algorithms are the building blocks to create large, useful
systems. The service that you’re providing for people
is making those systems more accessible, packaging them
better, giving better help on the phone, but not just having
a method that other people could put into another system