Protected: Predictive Coding Gets Patented
June 27, 2012
IBM, Watson, and Patents
December 13, 2011
What no game show?
Although it’s getting a lot of recognition lately, Apple’s Siri probably isn’t the smartest machine on the block.
IBM’s Watson, if you remember, was the one to beat Ken Jennings in Jeopardy. With the computer’s speech recognition, natural language processing, machine learning, and data mining, IBM is now pushing Watson into other applications.
For example, WellPoint, a health plan company, is using Watson to search patient records and improve diagnosis. We learn more in the article on Slashdot, “IBM Watson to Battle Patent Trolls”:
..IBM itself is using Watson to help sell Watson (and other IBM products) to other companies. Now, using Watson’s data mining and natural language talents, IBM has created the Strategic IP Insight Platform, or SIIP, a tool that has already scanned millions of medical patents and journals for the sake of improving drug discovery — and in the future, it’s easy to see how the same tool could be used to battle patent trolling, too.
It seems there are a lot of present and future implications for the company, but where’s the cloud service which showcases this formidable system?
Andrea Hayden, December 13, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google and Microsoft Go Head to Head Over Patent System
November 13, 2011
Google is pointing their finger at Microsoft in a battle over the inner workings of the patent system. Tim Porter, Google’s patent lawyer claims the system is broken and Microsoft is abusing it.
Their strategy has been to capitalize on the large patent portfolio they’ve built up when products like Android get marginalized. They end up making money from the success of other companies’ products. Microsoft’s has responded by saying that they are benefiting because of the natural evolution of a new industry.
Ars Technica said the following in the “Google: Microsoft uses patents when products ‘stop succeeding’” article:
“The Chronicle asked Porter the obvious question: should software be patentable? Porter refused to give a straight answer “There are certainly arguments” that copyright protection is “more appropriate” for the software industry, he said. But he would only say that “the current system is broken,” and that there has been “a 10- or 15-year period when the issuance of software patents was too lax.”
Back in 1991, Bill Gates became concerned that the industry could end up in standstill if software could be patent protected in the early days because a larger company could patent an integral and common piece allowing them to take all the profit. It seems like this day has come.
Megan Feil, November 13, 2011
Google Remains Patent Poor After an Unhelpful Purchase
October 16, 2011
Google Musters Patent Maginot Line
July 20, 2011
The patent wars make the goose want to stay in the cool, dark recesses of the Harrod’s Creek pond. Google’s many legal issues have been well documented, and now “Google Is Lawyering Up for Patent Litigation,” declares 9to5Google.
Citing a TechCrunch article, Jake Smith at 9to5Google goes a step further and includes a screenshot of an actual want-ad from the search giant. At issue in this case is the evolving patent tangle:
“TechCrunch is reporting that Google is hiring numerous amounts of lawyers in order to acquire more patents. Currently Google only owns 701 patents, a very small number for such a large company. In contrast Microsoft was awarded 3,121 patents just last year. Google will continue to get slammed with lawsuits if they don’t acquire more patents.”
Our view: The scale of these patent disputes is creeping toward Death Star scale. The stakes are high. Microsoft is taking the toll road approach. Apple is using its mixed martial arts and zen approach. Oracle and Google are thrashing. Who will be the winners? The answer is unclear. Who are the losers? Wow. I don’t want to speculate, but in legal tussles money wins. Lawyers often make out quite well. Users? Well, not really a consideration in my experience.
Right he is. This mess could be a boon for a few select lawyers. Who knew patent law could be so exciting?
Cynthia Murrell July 20, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, who will be publishing a new information service focused on the patent dust ups sweeping across the digital landscape. Coming in August 2011 and sponsored in part by Quasar Capital Advisors and ArticleOnePartners.com, both in New York, New York.
Patently Bad for the GOOG: Apple and Microsoft Snag the Nortel IP
July 1, 2011
I don’t know much about patents, patent attorneys, or the group Google, Apple, and Microsoft. What I learned today seemed less than ideal for the GOOG. “Apple and Microsoft Beat Google for Nortel Patents” informed me that lots of wildebeests were stampeding to the outskirts of the civilized world to gain control of patents. The lingo was “6,000 patent assets to a consortium made up of Apple, Microsoft and other technology giants for $4.5 billion in cash.”
Now this type of play is good for some outfits. One winner is likely to be ArticleOnePartners.com. Lots of outfits are going to want to know the scoop on the Nortel treasure trove. There will be some losers. I hate to point this out but Google seems to be looking down the corridor of a very long legal office building. The corridor has lots of doors. Behind each door is someone eager to sue Google for some alleged misstep. The corridor lighted with flickering neon tubes. The walls are government green. The floor is the weird gray stuff used in government buildings from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
The way to slow the Google is with legal hassles. Even for a patent klutz like me, it seems likely that the patent consortium may be hiring legal eagles, retired legal eagles, legal eagles to be and getting eyeballs devouring the Nortel patents and thinking about how those systems and methods may apply to what Google is doing.
Apple and Microsoft team up for the World Wrestling Federation battle over intellectual property related to telecommunications, mobile, and devices, among other related disciplines. Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/230150-the-10-best-tag-team-of-all-timeopinion
Back to ArticleOnePartners.com. This type of outfit is likely to find that its partner network is one way to help satisfy the need to get expert inputs about the Nortel intellectual property and related issues. The company says:
Article One enables our clients to access the world’s validity evidence to make better patent-related business decisions. Our clients connect with a global workforce of subject-matter experts and researchers who submit non-digitized evidence and foreign-language non-patent literature.
The New York Times’s article makes it clear that expert sources are going to be very much in demand. Of course, ArticleOnePartners.com has competitors, and these outfits will benefit as well. In my opinion, the Web scale of ArticleOnePartners.com gives it an advantage because most patent experts have limited bandwidth. Getting lots of eyeballs going quickly is a definite competitive advantage, but that’s just my observer’s opinion.
Here’s the passage I noted in the New York Times’s story cited above:
The Google offer was interpreted as a defensive move by the search engine giant, which was seeking intellectual property rights to shield itself from lawsuits as it moves deeper into the mobile business with its Android platform. ¶Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, wrote at the time of the bid that it was supposed to ‘‘create a disincentive for others to sue Google.’’ ¶‘‘The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents,’’ Mr. Walker wrote. ¶Now, thousands of crucial patents will be in the hands of rivals like Apple and Microsoft, both of which have shown themselves to be much more aggressive in patent litigation than Google. ¶On Friday, Mr. Walker said in an e-mail message that the auction’s outcome was ‘‘disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition.”
So what? My view is:
- Google is now a target because it has made mistakes and is currently fighting a multi front legal battle on core issues that may decide its fate. The allegations about favoring certain Web sites could expose some information that makes the glow on Google’s advertising pot of gold less inviting
- Google is distracted from search with its management incentive for social software. Can search experts do social? Google is making them try, and I hope it works. What’s the plan B?
- Google has a tough competitor in Apple. The notion of Apple and Microsoft doing a World Wrestling Federation tag team match again Messrs. Brin and Page. That’s a match everyone will get to watch.
- The shift in Web search behavior makes Google’s brute force approach less and less relevant with each passing day. Dare I mention Facebook? Well, the company has 700 million members and may become an even greater force in social media.
- Google is fixated on rich media. Is YouTube.com a contender, or is it destined to watch other services pull farther ahead? Apple, are you ready to roll over for the Google. Amazon, giving up? Microsoft conceding defeat? Netflix, Netflix, are you frightened? Yikes. Trouble methinks.
Net net: The patent deal is a significant event because Google is on notice that the legal front is going to be like a certain battle in Russia in 1941. Long nights, cold, and tasty grub. What look like amenities may have catastrophic consequences. I hope the Google prevails. Apple, Microsoft and others have made clear their desires are different from mine. I am in the rear with the gear, thank you.
Stephen E Arnold, July 2, 2011
You can read more about enterprise search and retrieval in The New Landscape of Enterprise Search, published my Pandia in Oslo, Norway, in June 2011.
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