“Delaware firm Autotext Technologies has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against 23 major technology companies including Apple and IBM, regarding predictive word processing,” Tim Conneally reports for BetaNews.
“Autotext is suing the following companies: Apple, AT&T, Helio, Hewlett-Packard, HTC America, IBM, Kyocera, LG Electronics USA, Microsoft, Motorola, Nintendo of America, Nokia, Nuance Communications, Palm, Qualcomm, Research In Motion, Samsung America, Sanyo North America, Sony, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Zi Corporation,” Conneally reports.
“All companies listed in the lawsuit, Autotext alleges, are infringing on a ‘computer-based transcription’ patent that was filed in 1994. The patent is loosely about predictive word processing, where a list of words is presented when a user begins to input letters, hence the Autotext nomenclature,” Conneally reports.
Full article here.
First……..
Anyway, talk about burning bridges….
Everyone wants a piece of the Apple pie.
Right. This is why software patents are such a stupid idea. It’s the equivalent of a screwdriver manufacturer deciding that they’re going to patent the idea of having a flashlight on their screwdrivers to help you see what you’re doing in dark areas.
Software patents are what has held back innovation in the tech industry for decades. When a company is allowed to rest on its laurels for so long, it discourages innovation and effectively sends them into a downward spiral – in any other industry. Because of this stupid idea of software patents, certain features are specific to certain products, effectively forcing some people to buy those certain products just to get what they want.
A common complaint about Apple’s ads is that they don’t ever show the great software that’s included. However, the idea is that realistically, iMovie and Windows Movie Maker do the same thing. What sets them apart is the ease of use, something that can’t be expressed in a flat, noninteractive media (such as TV commercials). That leaves the hardware, the one remaining differentiator.
At least, that’s how it SHOULD be. Features should not be legally locked to one company, as they currently are.
Sorry, that long comment on patents was mine. For some reason the name and email didn’t go through.
It was not all that long ago when it was not possible (or at least extremely difficult) to obtain a patent on a computer program. The reason was that software was deemed to be a mathematical formulae and such formulae are not patentable due to the fact that they are deemed to be independently derivable.
We should return to those days.
In addition I remember an old word processing program back in the 80’s that allowed for type-ahead word completion. Therefore the patent referred to above ought not to have been granted as it was prior art.
This is a poor patent that will be disallowed due to “prior knowledge”. The technique was already widely used in 1994.
That’s my guess.
Oh, yay. Another excuse for morons to dump Apple & other tech sector stock on this “bad” news. And another buying opportunity for the rest of us.
It took them 13 years to start something about it? Come on…
What is required is public enquiry on how the timeline of the software & hardware industry first came about.
Any interested parties would be given six months have to submit any claim they have or involvement in this industry.
The enquiry hopefully would be headed by a supreme court judge/s who would then hear from all parties worldwide.
The findings could then be published on the web with an invitation to interested parties to submit what could then be considered as a template that would govern all future software & hardware patents.
Once the template has been condensed into a statement that is acceptable to the majority of the interested parties, this could then be passed as the test upon which new innovations in software & hardware can be granted a patent status.
I suggest this because however hard one tries, no one can actually come up with a new unique product because the building blocks that have led to these so called patentable products seeking patents have provided the prior art or concept or foundation upon which these new products are based upon.
Conclusion?:- This products should be brought under the patent system that is applicable to medicines. A period of uniqueness which can be re-applied for over a period of finite time thereafter which, the patent is removed and the product is then available to the rest of the World to either improve upon it or modify it for usage in another part of the World royalty free.
The same system for medicines also applies to music, so why can it not apply to software & hardware?
Mr. Charles Babbage invented the first computer, admittedly a calculator. If American Patent Laws applied then as they do now, the computer would never have evolved into what it is now.
Why do we never hear about the Patent Infringement Cases that are lost by the plaintiff because they did not defend their patent within a reasonable time? Courts regularly determine that patent protection is lost because the holder of the patent did not try to enforce their rights within a reasonable time of discovering the patent breach. Given the ubiquitous nature of predictive text methods in billions of text messages on 90%+ of mobile phone and the many years this has been around, I would guess this case will get thrown out too. I hope they get done for costs by all the defendants. maybe bankrupting them for this frivolous law suit will send an appropriate message.
I think that this lawsuit, like most, is dumb. Nevertheless, shouldn’t Sun Microsystems have been named in the lawsuit too? I believe that Sun’s StarOffice has as word completion feature — like its open source cousin OpenOffice.
1994 -> 2007. That’s like a century in tech time. Tech patents should be free after five years. That’s like 20 years in non-IT industry.
Autotext Technologies doesn’t even have a web site. I bet they don’t even have an office.
I guess thats what they call T9 and if it is then I can say it sucks most of the time. I can really understand why no one would pay for it since it doesn’t seem to be a finished product. Sometimes when I type an sms using T9 it complains that the word doesn’t exist, thats the good times, but other times I can just keep on typing even though the result is clearly no word in any language.
Hasn’t Excel done this for, like, ever?
this is pretty stoopid. i mean, there are only so many words that a commonly typed word can be as you’re typing it, so therefore any ‘auto-completion’ is gonna be basically the same as the other. so i guess no other tech company should code their software to do this? guess they all need to have autotext technologies sale them the code, etc? i’m sure all, or some, of the aforementioned companies being sued have been doing this, in some form or another, for years now. why does it take autotext tech 13 yrs to do something about it? sounds like someone is wanting a ‘quick buck.’
mw = ‘policy’ …as in, the court systems REALLY need to change their policy on how & what cases to accept!
This is so prolific and such an obvious idea that someone surely can prove prior art and invalidate the patent.
Autotext is a subsidiary of Acacia Research.
Plus they better have a shhhhhiiit load of money.
Back in 1985, my Commador Vic64 had predictive word processing… spell as I type feature.
Apple has been named in the suit for infringing on AutoText Technologies with Mac OS X Tiger, the Safari web browser, and related products. Other high-profile companies named in the suit include HP, IBM, HTC, Motorola, Palm, Microsoft (for its Windows Mobile 6 OS), and carriers like AT&T;, Helio, and Verizon. Game console manufacturers Nintendo and Sony have been named in the suit for their Wii and PlayStation 3 systems, respectively.
What about the name itself… AutoText… MS uses it all the time.
http://www.intomobile.com/2007/11/14/no-name-firm-files-suit-against-apple-and-other-handset-makers-for-patent-infringement.html
AutoText Technologies claims infringed on a 1994 patent for a computer-based transcription device. Apparently, the AutoText patent covers any device made in the US with a display, keyboard, storage for vocabulary, and method for sorting keywords by frequency.
IF Auto type correction was used back in 1985 – then THEY don’t have a chance in hell.
What was that software on Vic64?
Some word processing app?
Well it’s obvious that they saw this coped the first time and just sat on their laurels. Knowing it would catch on. Then they waited and waited until more and more people used the idea then pounced when they thought they had enough to make billions out of an obvious and simple idea.
I seriously cannot see how an idea like this can be patented. Surely it is like patenting a wheel. It’s such an obvious natural progression to word processing.
Butt heads.
We need to start a campaign. “People against stupid patents!!!”
Death to patent trolls!!
Production spelunking is fandango, I Havana all-terrain vehicle Usenet it.
This crap is really getting old… these two bit companies that no one in there right mind has ever hear of craw out of the woodwork because they have failed at marketing there only week ideas… and now expect to make a bundle of companies who have earned the right to make it because they for most have a superior product!
Buy the way… didn’t they leave someone off of there list… by god they did…DELL! But then again Dell isn’t really worth there time… after all they no longer have deep pockets! <GRIN>
Yet another bunch of wanks who sue because they can’t sell. Please, for the love of all that is holy, can we get some fsck-ing tort reform in this country?!
READ THE ARTICLE
“Autotext is a subsidiary of Acacia Research, a company in the business of acquiring, developing, licensing and enforcing patents who was recently charged with engaging in frivolous litigation. In August, the company’s Micromesh Technology Corp. v. American Recreational Products was deemed a “frivolous infringement investigation” by a Northern California Judge.”