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This kind of stupidity always makes me glad that we don't have software patents on the european side of the Atlantic.

The only purpose those have is to lay trivial patents as landmines in the path of any halfway decent developer so that ony the biggest, baddest companies with the richest "defensive" patent portfolios can afford to survive in the long run, even though the "inventions" are really straightforward in most cases.

Just disgusting. (And that applies to many of Apple's own patents just as well, even if they don't have much of a choice under the circumstances.)

Mar 18, 08 - 07:18 pm Comment from: Roberto

Don't give in to hate, Apple. That only leads to the Dark Side.

Mar 18, 08 - 07:22 pm Comment from: Ampar

Next up, the estate of H. G. Wells.
Filed in the Eastern District of Texas, of course.

How can a company that shut up shop in 2004 still be ok with litigation of its patents?

Don't they have to show that the infringement is damaging their business?

Mar 18, 08 - 07:32 pm Comment from: KingMel

I have been organizing my data in time-based streams since I began working with file systems. Examples include document revisions, series of meetings on a given topic, etc.

Have we have passed the point at which patents are useful/beneficial? Half of the world openly ignores patent and copyright protection, and a subset of the rest are focused on exploiting the patent process for personal gain without ever contributing anything of benefit to society.

Mar 18, 08 - 07:41 pm Comment from: TowerTone

Mirror Worlds..Isn't that down at the strip mall, between Razor Town and The Straw Port?

Mar 18, 08 - 07:44 pm Comment from: Jubei

So let me see. I poop a certain way every time for consistency and patent it, I can potentially sue billions of people infringing on my patented poopee method?

Mar 18, 08 - 07:47 pm Comment from: TowerTone

Jubei
Do you think your evidence will hold up in court?

Mar 18, 08 - 08:00 pm Comment from: mcdeans

> At the time, there was nothing like it

Sounds very like the way the old VAX VMS operating system worked. It allowed you to retain previous version(s) each time the file was saved, with the number of versions being system configurable. Certainly saved my sorry ass on a couple of occasions.

Mar 18, 08 - 08:01 pm Comment from: Jubei

@TowerTone

I'm pretty confident my claim will hold up in court. I'll ned to demonstrate of course, and I'm sure I'll come up smelling like roses to the jury and judge.

Mar 18, 08 - 08:22 pm Comment from: TowerTone

"I'm pretty confident my claim will hold up in court."

I'll take that as the straight poop.

Mar 18, 08 - 08:30 pm Comment from: Real IT Guy

mcdeans nails it in one.

This is precisely like the old versioning system in VMS.

Moreover, it's precisely like Volume Shadow Copy in Windows, and like any enterprise backup system in use in the last fifteen years.

I know that Arcserve has had an interface like this since 2000 or so; possibly farther back.

Mar 18, 08 - 08:46 pm Comment from: Spark

In other news, descendants of Archimedes are suing all manufacturers of pumps, propellers, screws, windmills, and turbines for patent infringement.

Mar 18, 08 - 09:05 pm Comment from: ChrissyOne

You guys are gross.

Mar 18, 08 - 09:05 pm Comment from: CitizenX

Quicktime... time based data.

Mirror Who?

All the fake lawsuits and companies apparently are in Texas! Here's another one that is trying to get rich quick off of someone else's hard work.

Apple's software is based on OSX Unix, so they don't have a case just reading one line says it all how stupid this is.

Mar 18, 08 - 11:20 pm Comment from: Chuch

Now I'm suing Mirror Worlds for violating my patent. I patented the concept of filing a patent for a vague idea that you cannot even start to bring to market (let alone make work) then to sue whoever actually makes the product sometime in the future. That was MY idea!!!! I want my cut of the action for each of these patent infringing lawsuits!

OK…can we just give Texas to Mexico now?

@RePlay
Given the dollar's sliding value, that might end up being a good deal for Texas.

MW hard - as in patent lawsuits aren't

Isn't it time to give Texas back to Mexico... or, at the very least, just kick them out of the union?

I've heard stories going back for decades, that the Texas state constitution reserves for Texas the right to secede from the U.S. That it was a part of the agreement (treaty?) between the U.S. and the Republic of Texas that allowed Texas to become a part of the U.S. If true, maybe Texas should show a little class and remove itself.

While we're at it, maybe the U.S. could trade Texas for the Baja peninsula.

I'm sure it would be more useful to us.

As long as they take GW and his cronies with them, Texas may secede. "MDN Magic Word" is bed, as in who is GW in bed with now?

Mar 19, 08 - 05:26 am Comment from: Tommy Boy

Here's the biggest problem. The patent invalidation and the patent infringement cases take two entirely different tracks that are mutually exclusive.

Apple can appeal to the PTO that they had prior art with Hypercard that would invalidate the Mirror Worlds patent.

And they could win.

But that would do nothing to stop Judge Ward from giving Mirror Worlds a judgment against Apple for infringing the patent since the case would likely go through his courtroom much faster than the PTO appeal.

We really need a patent appeals court that combines the two tracks into a single process.

Mar 19, 08 - 07:49 am Comment from: TowerTone

"as in who is GW in bed with now?"
His wife, john, unlike some Governors we know.
And maybe a teddy bear, too......

Mar 19, 08 - 07:52 am Comment from: TowerTone

nobodi
Under the same agreement, Texas may break itself up into as many as five states.

That's would be a lot more Republican senators.....

I love the United states of America. A country of attorneys elected by the people who also write the laws and run the democracy. It keeps making me fucking rich.

God bless America.

MW: term, see we even have karma on our side

It appears as if Judge Ward's peculiar exercise of jurisprudence enables legally-supported extortion. "Pay me or I'll sick the Judge on you."

Oooops! Make that "sic" not "sick"

Hey, has anyone found any reference to Mirror World? I googled and found nothing. Did they ever actually make a product?

Mar 19, 08 - 04:09 pm Comment from: Ampar

To lost in the mirror:

There are several proxy download links to Scopeware Vision, one of their products.

For example:
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Reviews/r1025.html

The link to "Mirror Worlds Technologies" is long gone.

Mar 19, 08 - 04:13 pm Comment from: Ampar

P.S. http://pbokelly.blogspot.com/2004/06/mirror-worlds-technologies-inc-has.html

Most references like the blog above are mostly useless quicksand web references.

Mar 19, 08 - 04:15 pm Comment from: Ampar

P.P.S. Here we go.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.scopeware.com/

Some of these Internet Archive Wayback Machine links work to lend a few clues.

Mar 23, 08 - 07:06 pm Comment from: Ronald J Riley

Apple Reaps What They Sow

Has it occurred to anyone that Apple is being sued because they have a big appetite for other's patent property and a big ego that gets in the way of acquiring the rights to the patent properties they need to succeed in the market?

Have you considered that Apple gets sued after they have refused a legitimate offer for a license?

Have you wondered why Apple produces lots of patents yet still misses the most important technology they need to satisfy their customers?

Or have you considered that Apple's membership in the Coalition for Patent fairness and PIRACY, aka. the Piracy Coalition is a good indication that birds of a feather do flock together?

Some companies start as inventors, and some start as parasites on those who have invented. Eventually they end up alike, one group never being inventive and the second losing the ability to produce significant inventions as they age. Both will try to substitute quantity in patent filings for the quality of inventions they are incapable of producing. It does not work.

All Piracy Coalition members fit one of these profiles. Tech companies who are past their prime, insurance and banking collectively have no shame!

What they are very good at producing is innovative media hype which obfuscates the reality of their existence. Their multi-million dollar “troll” campaign is a perfect example of this. They paint their victims as “trolls” while the courts are finding their conduct so egregious that they are handing down staggering judgments. This is what happens to those who are caught lying, cheating, and stealing and no amount of public relations painting their victims as evil “trolls” can change the facts of these cases.

Personally I think that it is a shame that Piracy Coalition members have failed to learn the lesson which inventors and the courts are teaching. It is all about conducting one’s business in an ethical manner!

Ronald J. Riley,


Speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President - http://www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - http://www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - http://www.patentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.

Mar 24, 08 - 06:16 am Comment from: stv

What is a patent troll?

According to some a patent troll is a firm who licenses patents they do not themselves commercialize. Yet many of the large firms who are most critical of the practice do it themselves. Out licensing is now an important profit center of most every firm. Often, as a result they end up licensing out patents covering technologies they themselves do not use as they are not consistent with their corporate plan. Rather hypocritical isnt it?

The sad truth is that entities some call “trolls” are often small companies or independent inventors who cant get the money to commercialize their inventions and end up on the curb watching others benefit from their creations. It’s enough to drive one mad. It’s certainly enough to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.