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------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 15:36:54 -0500 Send reply to: patent-l@ftplaw.wuacc.edu From: Gregory Aharonian <srctran@world.std.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <patent-l@ftplaw.wuacc.edu> Subject: PATNEWS: Horrible ecommerce patent claim
!20000913 Horrible ecommerce patent claim
One of my readers, hearing I was a bit blue, decided to cheer me up by sending me the following ecommerce patent claim from a patent that, filed at the end of 1997, manages to cite absolutely no non-patent prior art with a claim that describes nothing more than having a couple of employees using a database with verification checks to process customer orders. What a conceptual breakthrough - no wonder absolutely nothing in all of the business school libraries was relevant as prior art. Apparently there are no universities within a half hour drive of Los Altos Hills (home of the inventor) - it be one of those mountain villages in California where you have to ride on a mule up a steep and windy trail to reach the village.
For those of you speaking on business method patents this fall, and asking me about dumb examples, here's one. Coincidentally, and maybe in honor of the PTO's brilliance in awarding this patent, an EPO board has just voted 10-9 to allow software patents in Europe.
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6115690 Integrated business-to-business Web commerce and business automation system Issued/Filed Dates: Sept. 5, 2000 / Dec. 22, 1997 (85 claims - 395 drawings)
1. An automated end-to-end business process for product sales that uses a relational database management system, the process comprising the steps of:
a first user inputting a sales record to the database for an order of a customer; [GREG NOTE: totally trivially dumb]
automatically generating a customer invoice; [GREG NOTE: totally trivially dumb]
a second user inputting a customer payment record to the database, wherein system privileges of the first user and the second user are at least partially mutually exclusive; [GREG NOTE: mostly trivially dumb - multilevel database security]
automatically determining a status of the customer payment as reconciled or not reconciled; and [GREG NOTE: totally trivially dumb]
during each of the foregoing inputting steps, qualifying user inputs using experiential constraints, based on the then-current state of the database as a whole. [GREG NOTE: trivially dumb - range check on input fields]
Abstract: A software system business-to-business Web commerce (Web business, or e-business) and automates to the greatest degree possible, in a unified and synergistic fashion and using best proven business practices, the various aspects of running a successful and profitable business. Web business and business automation are both greatly facilitated using a computing model based on a single integrated database management system (DBMS) that is either Web-enabled or provided with a Web front-end. The Web provides a window into a "seamless" end-to-end internal business process. The effect of such integration on the business cycle is profound, allowing the sale of virtually anything in a transactional context (goods, services, insurance, subscriptions, etc.) to be drastically streamlined.
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EUROPEAN BOARD VOTES TO ALLOW SOFTWARE PATENTS
An administrative board for the European Patents Office has voted 10-9 to allow patents for software in Europe, with a final decision coming in November at a conference of the all the countries represented by the Office. Software patents are available in the U.S. and Japan, and multinational companies have been arguing for unlimited patenting as part of a uniform global legal framework. Critics, however, fear that large companies will use the patenting process as a tool to squelch innovative technologies that threaten their standard products. Among the dissenting countries were Germany, the U.K. and France. The head of the German delegation expressed his reservations over the change: "We would have problems with the U.S. tendency to patent everything that can be patented. That would stifle innovation and cause a glut of litigation." (Wall Street Journal 13 Sep 2000) http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB968792884357682385.htm
[note: from a commentator on a patent discussion group - ] BTW, I am told that among the voters in favor of software patenting are major industrial countries such as Lichtenstein and Monaco, who did make the difference ... one wonders about the motivations ...
I do not know the exact list of voters, but it appears clearly that more work is needed in some countries to inform the political powers concerning these issues. But note that the votes of the 3 countries above, unhoped for not so long ago, show that we can lobby effectively on these issues.
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