Technology

59415 readers

3175 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

283

Open source fights back: 'We won't get patent-trolled again' (www.zdnet.com)

submitted 2 days ago by mox@lemmy.sdf.org to c/technology@lemmy.world

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 104 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Tldr, to help fight patent trolls:

They're asking you to find evidence of preexisting technology -- referred to by patent lawyers as "prior art" -- that can kill off bad patents. This could be open-source documentation (including release notes), published standards or specifications, product manuals, articles, blogs, books, or any publicly available information.

They use this info to essentially undercut and invalidate the patent trolls' filing, killing their ability to file suit on that patent again.

There's also a contest with a $3000 prize for anyone who can help kill a current one on their plate.

https://patroll.unifiedpatents.com/contests/s3vQkRdTC6coNkjyx

[–] stinky@redlemmy.com 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It sounds like they need proof that this tech existed before 2013? I'm new to patents.. how does this evidence kill the patent?

[–] PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Can't file a patent on something that someone else already made.