Check this out.... -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [governance] Two outrageous stories of so-called "intellectual property protection" Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:20:53 -0400 From: George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky@attglobal.net> Reply-To: governance@lists.cpsr.org,George Sadowsky <george.sadowsky@attglobal.net> To: governance@lists.cpsr.org The two patents APPROVED this month are described below below. It's truly remarkable that such giants of of the information industry can make such unbelievable leaps into the future. I first thought that these were clever jokes. They are not. If you don't believe them, check them in: http://patft.uspto.gov/ http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=7,407,089&OS=7,407,089&RS=7,407,089 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7,415,666&OS=7,415,666&RS=7,415,666 or just Google the patent numbers for some interesting commentary. Then take action to demand a complete overhaul of the patent system. George ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ AWARDED TO IBM! On Tuesday,* IBM* was granted US Patent No. 7,407,089 for storing a preference for* paper* or* plastic* grocery bags on customer cards and displaying a picture of said preference after a card is scanned. The invention, Big Blue explains, eliminates the 'unnecessary inconvenience for both the customer and the cashier' that results when '*Paper* or* Plastic*?' must be asked. The patent claims also cover affixing a cute sticker of a* paper* or* plastic* bag to a customer card to indicate packaging preferences. AWARDED TO MICROSOFT! United States Patent 7,415,666 Sellers , et al. August 19, 2008 Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments Abstract A method and system in a document viewer for scrolling a substantially exact increment in a document, such as one page, regardless of whether the zoom is such that some, all or one page is currently being viewed. In one implementation, pressing a Page Down or Page Up keyboard key/button allows a user to begin at any starting vertical location within a page, and navigate to that same location on the next or previous page. For example, if a user is viewing a page starting in a viewing area from the middle of that page and ending at the bottom, a Page Down command will cause the next page to be shown in the viewing area starting at the middle of the next page and ending at the bottom of the next page. Similar behavior occurs when there is more than one column of pages being displayed in a row. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ George Sadowsky george.sadowsky@gmail.com 2182 Birch Way george.sadowsky@attglobal.net Woodstock, VT 05091-8155 http://www.georgesadowsky.org/ tel: +1._802_.457.3370 GSM mobile: +1._202_.415.1933 Voice mail & fax: +1._203_.547.6020 Grand Central: +1._202_.370.7734 SKYPE: sadowsky ____________________________________________________________ You received this message as a subscriber on the list: governance@lists.cpsr.org To be removed from the list, send any message to: governance-unsubscribe@lists.cpsr.org For all list information and functions, see: http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance