Question(s): When responding to your peers' posts, reflect on how patent infringement affects cyber ...
Question(s): When responding to your peers' posts, reflect on how patent infringement affects cyberspace and e-commerce. One area of focus could be the gray areas created by recent court rulings. PEER POST # 1 Internet patents, otherwise known as business method patents, are a tool for protecting business practices online. According to Justia, a business method patent "is a type of utility patent that protects a process rather than a physical object. It has proved especially useful to online companies that use software for their business" (Justia, 2023). Business method patents can grant exclusive rights to their owners, creating opportunities to leverage competitive advantage gained by exclusivity, or the owner may choose to license the patent to other companies, charging them a fee to employ the patent in competing products. J.D. Houvener, Patent Attorney and Founder of the website, Bold Patents, discusses Tinder in a 2021 blog post, saying that "One example of an internet patent comes from the well-known online dating app Tinder, which connects individuals via a “mutual interest” swiping method that it claimed was unique and qualified for protection. The company applied for and received a patent for its matchmaking process in 2013" (Houvener, 2021). With a patent, a company can take legal action against others who use the patented method without authorization. This helps prevent infringement and ensures that the company can maintain control over its business practice. Andrew Liptak of The Verge provides an example of this in a 2018 news article that discusses a litigation between Match Group, Tinder's parent company, and Bumble, a competing dating app. "On Friday, Match filed a lawsuit that accuses Bumble of infringing on a pair of patents held by Tinder: one called “Matching Process System and Method,” in which users swipe cards and mutually select one another, as well as “Display Screen or Portion Thereof With a Graphical User Interface of a Mobile Device,” which it describes as an “ornamental aspect” of Tinder’s App. The lawsuit also points to similarities between each companies’ apps, and Bumble’s descriptions of “swiping” run afoul of Tinder’s registered trademarks" (Liptak, 2018). Patents also encourage innovation. My last example is not an internet patent, but it's an interesting example of how "the answer to a design problem” (Caruso, 2017) led to 30 years of innovation in the gaming industry. The D-pad, or directional pad was introduced on Nintendo Handhelds in 1982. They did this to allow for axis movement in four directions as opposed to two, and because a joystick was too cumbersome for the portable device. The design was patented in 1985 and used on every version of the Nintendo console until 2016's Nintendo switch. In an analysis paper I wrote for IT-515, Innovation in Info Technology, I confirmed that "the Nintendo patent expired in 2005, and now we can see the D-Pad as a standard on not only gaming controllers, but other devices like TV and DVD remotes" (Spicer, 2023). Now, while Sony, Sega, and eventually Microsoft had their own consoles, they had to innovate their own versions of the D-Pad, changing not only the operation, but the design of the hardware to avoid infringement. Sega's solution was an 8 direction, disc shaped pad. Sony had their D-Pad enclosed in part of the controller housing on the PlayStation 1, not fully exposed like the Nintendo. Even Microsoft, when it entered the console market, did so with a multi directional pad. Today though, it's hard to find a controller or a remote that doesn't use some variant of the D-pad, and it's pretty neat that we have Nintendo to thank for that. PEER POST # 2 According to Wex Definitions Team (2024) of Cornell University, a patent “grants the patent holder the exclusive right to exclude others from making, using, importing, and selling the patented innovation for a limited period”. Interestingly, patents are guaranteed under the United States Constitution itself and further detailed in the Patent Act of 1790 (Brown, 2016). This established a ‘first to invent’ doctrine for the process of getting a patent. The requirements for something to be patented are “(1) patentable subject matter, (2) utility, (3) novelty, (4) nonobviousness, and (5) enablement” (Wex Definitions Team, 2024). “The first U.S. patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash, an ingredient used in fertilizer on July 31 [and] President George Washington signed the first patent” (Milestones in U.S. Patenting, 2024). Two major shifts in patents have occurred relatively recently. First, in 1998 an important case, State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, was decided by the Court of Appeals and “the court did away with the “business methods exception” to patentability and upheld a patent on a software program that was used to make mutual-fund asset allocation calculations” (E-Commerce Times, 2003). This ruling made it possible for Amazon to patent its 1-Click technology. Secondly, in 2011 the America Invents Act became law and “switched from a “first to invent” system to a “first inventor to file” system, thereby eliminating interference proceedings entirely. Under U.S patent law, it no longer matters much who invents a thing first, what matters is which inventor files a patent application first” (Brown, 2016). This background information helps make the transition to understanding internet patents and their use in safeguarding business practices easier. An early example is the company Priceline and its business method patent of allowing customers to name their own price which it received in August of 1998 (“Priceline.com Dismisses Patent Challenge,” 2002). Priceline has used patents focused on helping people travel cheaply and efficiently to help their business grow. Priceline owns booking.com, kayak.com which is a travel focused search engine, and OpenTable (Brachmann, 2015). A more recent example is the patent dispute between the Korean company Firstface and technology giants Apple and Samsung over the use of fingerprint biometric data used to open phones or other technologies. Firstface has three U.S. patents related to fingerprint authentication. “Firstface also have a variety of patents on face, fingerprint, and iris recognition technology in Korea, China, Europe, and Japan” (Klaus, 2022). Firstface filed a patent infringement case in the U.S. against Apple and won on two of the three claims which is why Apple is now more focused on face recognition for many of its products. Finally, an early and controversial patent decision allowed Amazon to patent its 1-click technology for shopping and purchasing items. They won an early patent dispute with Barnes and Noble over the use of the technology and then got a boost when Apple licensed the 1-click technology for its own use. However, Amazons patent expired in 2017 and now the controversy continues with debates over the validity of the patent under the ‘nonobvious’ test and its importance to Amazon as it launched its business away from only selling books.
