back to article Adobe, Level 3 drive a stake through heart of vid-stream creature before it attacks again

The US Patent and Trademark Office has torn up parts of a video-streaming technology patent used against Adobe and Level 3 Communications in a patent-infringement legal scrap. The office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board has invalidated chunks of patent 5,995,091, which describes a "system and method for streaming multimedia …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    More patent news...

    I'm starting to think I should be registering patents at TheRegister.

    "The Register - Patenting the hand that feeds IT"

    Maybe we all should become patent trolls because it apparently works enough to make headlines.

  2. Mage Silver badge
    Devil

    I Believe in Copyrights, Patents and Registered Design.

    But not as implemented and policed in USA.

    The Patent Office is useless.

    DCMA, Millennium Copyright act, DRM, the So called ITC really US Import Embargo Commission

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_International_Trade_Commission.

    RIAA

  3. Lord Lien

    Wonder if I can patent......

    ... trolling on the internet? I would make a small fortune! Hell, I would even sue me for this post! Wonder how much I'm worth in court? 50p & nipple rub?

  4. Captain DaFt

    The ultimate patent:

    1. Get a US patent for this:

    "A means by which Ideas may be registered and protected in commerce by law." (You know they'll just rubber stamp approve it.)

    2. Sell patent to Patent Troll Company with big pockets and little sense. (That'd be almost any of them.) IE: PROFIT!!

    3. Get popcorn and beer to consume while watching them take US Patent office to court for patent infringement.

    4. Watch as US patent reform actually becomes a reality. (I wish!)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The ultimate patent:

      I think someone actually tried to get a patent in the US on the "business" process of getting a patent and using it to sue someone else. As far as I recall it was initially granted, but the Patent Office subsequently revoked it when the patent owner threatened to sue the Patent Office.

  5. Mephistro
    Facepalm

    Sigh...

    Software patents, again.

    Most of them could be summarised as follows:

    "A method of doing things with a computer that other parties have been doing for years, either with computers or with pen&paper, expressed in the vaguest language and whose biggest achievements are usually destroying innovation and making lawyers rich."

  6. foxyshadis

    It's great that the USPTO is finally getting on the job...

    ...but it has two decades of worthless approved trash to sift through, and it's going to be a long time before this headache is behind us. Fortunately they're expiring at a steady rate now. (Most likely an impetus for last year's lawsuit.)

    1. Oninoshiko

      Re: It's great that the USPTO is finally getting on the job...

      Invaliding a patent is one thing, but I'll believe they are actually doing their job when I see them start rejecting this garbage to begain with!

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like