The patent system in the US is truly messed up.
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Sony, McAfee, others sued for patent infringement
Summary
After suing Microsoft for patent infringement, Uniloc USA is now turning its sights on a host of other companies.
Topics
After suing Microsoft for patent infringement, Uniloc USA is now turning its sights on a host of other companies.
In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in the eastern district of Texas Thursday, Uniloc is alleging that its patent for software activation is being violated by the likes of Sony, McAfee, Activision, Quark, Borland Software, and Aspyr Media.
The patent in question #5,490,216, awarded to Uniloc founder Ric Richardson in 1996, covers a method for registering and activating software locked to one PC. The technology was developed as a way to prevent users from freely installing or copying a single software program to multiple machines.
For more on this story, read Sony, McAfee, sued over software activation patent on CNET News.
Talkback Most Recent of 6 Talkback(s)
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betelgeuse6807/30/2010 07:52 PM -
RE: Sony, McAfee, others sued for patent infringement
@betelgeuse68 - Amen, brother. I just read an article about the number of scientific discoveries made around the same time by different people. The patent system does not allow for that possibility. Many patents are even based on things which are not only obvious, but which mimic the way things happen in nature.
nfordzdn08/02/2010 01:16 PM -
RE: Sony, McAfee, others sued for patent infringement
Sounds like yet another patent troll company... Their patent was awarded in 1996 why wait until now or in Microsoft's case until 2003 to sue? And the case was overturned in Microsoft's favor in September of 2009 with an appeal filed by Uniloc to be heard this September.
athynz08/02/2010 06:03 AM -
RE: Sony, McAfee, others sued for patent infringement
@athynz
On a side note, the uniloc company started in 2003 with a patent for 1996? Its cool I can create patents for software I will create instead of actually making the software first. Even though I hate MS I hope they push this uniloc company into folding.
This is stupid to patent. I see the point of wanting people to pay for software, but if one person thinks up the same idea as another, there is only so much that can be done to make the code unique. Other than that they are going to have matching qualities. I wonder what makes Adobe's license activation any different. They have the same single user/pc activation lock. I guess uniloc is going after who they know will pay out instead of going after a company that will fight back.
sharpear08/03/2010 05:21 AM -
Wasn't there software around 1989 that did the same thing?
.... GEOS for the Commodore 64/128 did the same thing. Has anyone bothered to check the "prior art" on this? Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I distinctly remember the GEOS OS being tied to a single system. Same was true for the early Apple programs (i.e. the Mac II).
rock06r(Edited: 08/02/2010 06:20 AM) -
Sleep not the patent trolls.
Let's see if the obvious troll will point out that which is not non-obvious and a gallery of prior art.
seanferd08/03/2010 01:34 AM
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