Dilbert Takes On Overbearing Patents
from the but-confuses-trademark-law dept
It didn’t take very long for a whole bunch of you to submit today’s Dilbert, where Scott Adams (finally) goes after overly broad patents, with Dilbert announcing that it makes no sense to build things any more, since “all future ideas are already covered by over-general patents”:
Comments on “Dilbert Takes On Overbearing Patents”
They're not incompatible
The REAL action is in Trademark Infringement. That’s where you can stop people from even talking about you. At least, people with fewer lawyers and/or resources.
Re: They're not incompatible
Especially when one considers that section 230 immunities don’t extend to service providers, lots of money for trolls.
No Taco for you
ChurchHatesTucker – Yeah, but why won’t Glenn Beck deny he raped and murdered a young girl in 1990?
Everyone else – I love Dilbert. I am glad so many other readers do too.
Re: No Taco for you
LOLWUT?
Re: Re: No Taco for you
Did I miss some kind of Glenn Beck rapist discussion while I was battling Swine Flu?
Re: Re: Re: No Taco for you
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090908/0321546127.shtml
Re: Re: Re: No Taco for you
“Did I miss some kind of Glenn Beck rapist discussion while I was battling Swine Flu?”
So you also cannot deny Beck’s rape and murder of a young girl in 1990?
Interesting…
Re: Re: Re: No Taco for you
Hang on, people who are accusing Glenn Beck of raping a young black girl in 1990 are now suddenly contracting swine flu?
Are there any lengths he won’t go to in order to cover up the fact that he still won’t deny not having raped a woman?
Sick bastard (not you, Glenn). I mean that Glenn is sick obviously for not denying that he is giving out swine flu to people exposing his covering up his not denying raping a girl not you for having it, although you obviously are or were sick, but in a different way, unless Glenn also has swine flu after exposing himself in which case you’re both sick in the same way…partially
Some people say that Glenn is not doing enough to protect the children, and now I understand why. It must be because he’s too busy raping them or infecting those kids who spot that he hasn’t said that he isn’t in fact Glenn Beck an alleged child rapist but someone else instead
I can’t believe this is allowed to go on – I’m shocked, this is too much…[sobs]…won’t somebody think of the anchors? No? [blows nose]…this isn’t the America I love…Oh yeah I’m English, anyway…[cries]…devastated
I doubt Adams was confused
Adams was an engineer, I really doubt he was confused about the difference. Notice how Dilbert said they should get out of their current business. CHW has it right, Trademark seems to be what everybody is trying to ab-use these days.
Re: I doubt Adams was confused
Adams was not (and is not) an engineer. He majored in economics and got an MBA.
Dilbert
Like I’ve said so often before, Dilbert is a documentary not a comic strip.
patents vs. trademarks
I think this was a deliberate “mistake”. How else could Dilbert take down both patent and trademark trolls in only 3 panels? 🙂
Re: patents vs. trademarks
Agreed. This was my thinking too when I first saw the strip.
Reasonable reverse royalty
What about a reverse royalty for busting an overbroad patent. You could recover legal fees in reverse infringement by people who would have infringed by are now free and clear.
To be fair?
“Though, to be fair, Adams seems to confuse patents and trademarks in the second panel (editors?). Still, nice to see Dilbert taking on such an issue.”
It’s a cartoon?
seems familier
The only winning move is not to play?
It makes sense to me. Making products is risky: what if patent reform fails? Patent litigation is risky: what if patent reform succeeds? OTOH, trademark litigation is on a steady upward curve.
Gotta love a bit of Dilbert!
Wouldn't it be cheaper to just imprison the lawyers?
Since only one out of 1,000,000 is human anyway.