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• Trolls in trouble

  6 juin 2013, par Mans — Law and liberty

  Life as a patent troll is hopefully set to get more difficult. In a memo describing patent trolls as a “drain on the American economy,” the White House this week outlined a number of steps it is taking to stem this evil tide. Chiming in, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (where patent cases are heard) in a New York Times op-ed laments the toll patent trolling is taking on the industry, and urges judges to use powers already at their disposal to make the practice less attractive. However, while certainly a step in the right direction, these measures all fail to address the more fundamental properties of the patent system allowing trolls to exist in the first place.

  System and method for patent trolling

  Most patent trolling operations comprise the same basic elements :

  1. One or more patents with broad claims.
  2. The patents of (1) acquired by an otherwise non-practising entity (troll).
  3. The entity of (2) filing numerous lawsuits alleging infringement of the patents of (1).
  4. The lawsuits of (3) targeting end users or retailers.
  5. The lawsuits of (3) listing as plaintiffs difficult to trace shell companies.

  The recent legislative actions all take aim at the latter entries in this list. In so doing, they will no doubt cripple the trolls, but the trolls will remain alive, ready to resume their wicked ways once a new loophole is found in the system.

  To kill a patent troll

  As Judge Rader and his co-authors point out in the New York Times, “the problem stems largely from the fact that, [...] trolls have an important strategic advantage over their adversaries : they don’t make anything.” This is the heart of the troll, and this is where the blow should be struck. Our weapon shall be the mightiest judicial sword of all, the Constitution.

  The United States Constitution contains (in Article I, Section 8) the foundation for the patent system (emphasis mine) :

  The Congress shall have Power [...] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

  Patent trolls are typically not inventors. They are merely hoarders of other people’s discarded inventions, and that allowing others to reap the benefits of an inventor’s work would somehow promote progress should be a tough argument. Indeed, it is the dissociation between investment and reward which has allowed the patent trolls to rise and prosper.

  In light of the above, the solution to the troll menace is actually strikingly simple : make patents non-transferable.

  Having the inventor retain the rights to his or her inventions (works for hire still being recognised), would render the establishment of non-practising entities, which most trolls are, virtually impossible. The original purpose of patents, to protect the investment of inventors, would remain unaffected, if not strengthened, by such a change.

  Links

  • Taking on Patent Trolls to Protect American Innovation
  • Fact Sheet : White House Task Force on High-Tech Patent Issues
  • Make Patent Trolls Pay in Court
  • Constitution of the United States

• avutil/pixfmt : add XV48 pixel format

  23 octobre 2024, par James Almer

  avutil/pixfmt : add XV48 pixel format
  Much like XV30 and XV36 in d75c4693fef51e8f0a1b88798530f4c5147ea906,
  
  XV48 is added to support 16bit 4:4:4 as defined by Microsoft.
  Signed-off-by : James Almer <jamrial@gmail.com>
  

  • [DH] doc/APIchanges
  • [DH] libavutil/pixdesc.c
  • [DH] libavutil/pixfmt.h
  • [DH] libavutil/tests/pixfmt_best.c
  • [DH] libavutil/version.h
  • [DH] tests/ref/fate/imgutils
  • [DH] tests/ref/fate/pixfmt_best
  • [DH] tests/ref/fate/sws-pixdesc-query

• avformat/mov : Only read the primary item for AVIF

  28 juin 2022, par Vignesh Venkatasubramanian

  avformat/mov : Only read the primary item for AVIF
  Update the still AVIF parser to only read the primary item. With this
  
  patch, AVIF still images with exif/icc/alpha channel will no longer
  
  fail to parse.
  For example, this patch enables parsing of files in :
  
  https://github.com/AOMediaCodec/av1-avif/tree/master/testFiles/Microsoft
  Adding two fate tests :
  
  1) demuxing of still image with 1 item - this test will pass regardless
  
     of this patch.
  
  2) demuxing of still image with 2 items - this test will fail without
  
     this patch and will pass with patch applied.
  Partially fixes trac ticket #7621
  Signed-off-by : Vignesh Venkatasubramanian <vigneshv@google.com>
  
  Signed-off-by : James Zern <jzern@google.com>
  

  • [DH] libavformat/isom.h
  • [DH] libavformat/mov.c
  • [DH] tests/fate/mov.mak
  • [DH] tests/ref/fate/mov-avif-demux-still-image-1-item
  • [DH] tests/ref/fate/mov-avif-demux-still-image-multiple-items