Re: patents and academia

John Milton wrote:
> 
> G'Day Dudley Mills:
> 

[big quote]

> 
> My best wishes to you for starting this thread and for continuing it. I 
> have long wondered if in the tawdry emissions of this list, a person of 
> real value actually existed. Best of luck on your patent adventure. May 
> you make ten million. And may the new owner shove it right up academia's 
> butt. What a change if the "watchers" of academia might actually have to 
> become "doers". Take care.
> 
> Sincerely
> 
> John Milton

More to the point of the thread, in which way do you see Dudley's patent 
as an innovation? Using any of the available technologies he uses as 
example on his site, I mean? the XML example is equivalent to the use I 
made of XML in the first project I worked on when I learned it (it used 
to be online but it's not there any more), meaning there were metadata 
about people and geolocations, on a web page, passed back and forth and 
used to perform operations. Mine was a third year project, built by 
three not exceptionally clever students (/me not exceptionally clever), 
and the year was 1998 or 1999.

While I share some of your opinions about academics, I don't see how 
they apply to this specific case. BTW, we've gone way off topic here, 
I'd say.

Let's get a grasp, this is like trying to sue someone for using a name 
similar to a trademark which in turn is a English word. It's an issue 
for people out there actually MAKING things. Academics don't do 
anything, as you say, so in which way should they be affected by a patent?
I.

> 
> 
> Dudley Mills wrote:
>>  G¢Day Noah, 
>>    
>>  > Disclosure is the whole point of the patent system. Without that there 
>>  > would be no reason for the patent system to exist. Please remember 
>>  > that it is the governments charge to look after the interest of the 
>>  > public not that of private
>>  enterprises. Disclosure is your part of the 
>>  > bargain in exchange for a little bit of the public's freedom. 
>>    
>>  Wrong. The matter must be disclosed and must be novel and inventive. 
>>    
>>  > I'd be most grateful if you would point out a major application either 
>>  > planned or in
>>  operation. 
>>    
>>  > Sure, <http://www.google.com/>, have you heard of it? 
>>    
>>  I¢d be please if you would point out how Google makes use of Semantic Web concepts. 
>>    
>>  >I think, perhaps, you chose the wrong free
>>  software developer to pick 
>>  > a fight with. 
>>    
>>  Not interested in fights. I used GNU¢s bison and yacc 15 years ago to build a 
>>  computer language parser and was very pleased with it. I hope the contributors 
>>  eventually went on to make some money to support themselves in their old age.  
>>    
>>  > Business don't pay royalties because they see a value in an idea, they 
>>  > pay royalties because they have to. 
>>    
>>  A bit of both really; no (sensible) business likes parting with money but all 
>>  see that they need to spend to make. They choose to spend to make. Certainly 
>>  my licensees (other technology) do. 
>>    
>>  > Please buy my patents and you can have the honour... 
>>    
>>  > The honour of what? Buying morally corrupt legal devices from someone 
>>  > who spams a community mailing list in the most inappropriate way 
>>  > possible so that I
>>  can extort and damage the very community I have 
>>  > worked for so long to develop and enrich. 
>>    
>>  Most interested to learn of your Semantic Web products, especially ones which 
>>  you think I would damage. It is quite possible that what was seen as threatening or 
>>  damaging would actually be beneficial. 
>>    
>>  If the result is someone buys the patents and implements the concepts then 
>>  the Semantic Web will have lurched forward. Then my messages would not 
>>  be spam. http://www.freewebs.com/dudley-mills/index.htm 
>>    
> 
> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. 
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51438/*http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs>

Received on Wednesday, 23 January 2008 10:22:44 UTC