Anyone see this site? Youmaybenext.com

[MrBond]

Last night when I was trying to get to sleep, I stumbled across the screen savers. They were talking about this company that had patented a couple of things (using images/text to make a sale on the web and accepting information to conduct automatic financial transactions). Apparently the patent office is horrible about granting this sort of thing and gave it to them without thinking.

So now this company is going around to small e-commerce sites on the internet (not enough money to go after the big ones like amazon) and sueing them for $5000. Most companies see that as being much cheaper then a court battle, so they pay it. They were saying that it's possible this company is going after the little guys first so they can build up a nice cash pile, then sue the big companies like Amazon.com.

Anyway, someone who was sued by the company started a website about it at YouMayBeNext.com. It's a good read so far, and it's something you might want to make any small business owners you know aware of.

(if this is a repost, someone let me know and I'll delete it, standard repost check didn't work)

 

[Tominator]

Important stuff but I'm a skeptic.

The site could be a scheme to get donations and will make zero difference even if their allegations are true.

 

[MrBond]

I dunno, the patent is listed right there on the main page. There's no method for donating cash yet either (although apparently people have asked and a page will be going up shortly). They've got a list of people who were sued too, and it all matches with what the guy who called into The Screen Savers was saying last night.

 

[DivideBYZero]

check here:

Article about PanIP

Links to the patent office site, so Patent is real.

 

[QTPie]

that sucks!

 

[smp]

Without patents and without intellectual copyright, we wouldn't have a cure for anything. It's this kind of greed that drives people to better the human race, you guys are brainwashed liberals.

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: smp
Without patents and without intellectual copyright, we wouldn't have a cure for anything. It's this kind of greed that drives people to better the human race, you guys are brainwashed liberals.

I have no problem with patents or intellectual property. This is borderline extortion. I fail to see how going after (relativly) small e-commerce sites is going to better human civilization. It's just as crazy as the JPEG patent.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Without patents and without intellectual copyright, we wouldn't have a cure for anything. It's this kind of greed that drives people to better the human race, you guys are brainwashed liberals.

this is moronic. it has nothing to do with liberal vs conservative. extortion is extortion and it's criminal behvior.

oh and btw, w/o small businesses our economy would collapse.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: smp
Without patents and without intellectual copyright, we wouldn't have a cure for anything. It's this kind of greed that drives people to better the human race, you guys are brainwashed liberals.

Well given how long people have been doing this on the net, it's akin to me coming out and saying after thousands of years of shoe-lace use "Hey everyone, my great great ^78 grandfather patented shoe laces. You all owe me money." It's ridiculous. It sounds ridiculous and it feels ridiculous. This company should not have been issued a patent in the first place and there is no reason why thousands of businesses should pay based upon some asinine decision by a moron behind a desk at the patent office.