p2pnet - rss feed: EFF challeges ‘bogus’ patent
p2p news / p2pnet: Test.com has used an “illegitimate patent to demand payments from universities with distance education programs that give tests online,” says the EFF (the Electronic Frontier Foundation).
But a patent re-examination application shows Test.com wasn’t the first to come up with this testing method, says the EFF’s Jason Schultz.
“Bogus patents like this one highlight the problems with the current patent system,” he states. “This is a good example of exactly what needs to be fixed to make patents useful to innovators and educators alike.”
Working with the Lemaire Patent Law Firm, the EFF filed a request for re-examination with the US Patent and Trademark Office, “showing that IntraLearn Software Corporation had been marketing an online test-taking system long before Test.com filed its patent request,” says the EFF, going on:
“But Test.com claims that its patent allows it to collect license fees for virtually all online testing methods, preventing educators from developing online coursework and communicating with students over the Internet. As online testing is critical to Internet education, the enforcement of this patent threats academic speech and academic freedom.”
The challenge is the second filing from EFF’s Patent Busting Project, created to combat the chilling effects bad patents have on public and consumer interests.
The first, granted on Monday, involves a Clear Channel patent for a system and method of creating recordings of live performances, locking musical acts into using Clear Channel technology and blocking innovations by others, says the EFF.
[A PledgeBank fund has been started here. http://www.pledgebank.com/FreeSpeechCanad. Please have a look, help if you can, and spread the word. Cheers! And thanks ……. Jon]
Also See:
EFF - EFF Challenges Dangerous Patent on Internet Test-Taking, April 5, 2006
