USPTO Grants CA Lawyer Domain-Naming Patent

SpecialAgentXXX writes "Geek.com reports that as of Dec 30, 2003, CA lawyer Frank Weyer holds patent #6,671,714 which is 'a method for assigning URL's and e-mail addresses to members of a group comprising the steps of: assigning each member of said group a URL of the form name.subdomain.domain and assigning each member of said group an e-mail address of the form [e-mail].' He's now, in SCO-like fashion, suing Network Solutions and Register.com for infringing on his patent. This is nonsense. My friend who ran for political office in 2000 used this exact naming scheme for his web site. All of us here can see how asinine this is. Will our legal system?"

USPTO,

[Xandu]

you have pissed us off too many times.
Prepare to be slashdotted.

Wake the patent office up....

[MentlFlos]

Wake the patent office up and sue THEM! :)

Ehh?

[Polkyb]

"My friend who ran for political office in 2000 used this exact naming scheme for his web site"

You're friend owns [e-mail].? That's SO cool

Re:Prior art has to be out there...

[mekkab]

embers-fire

Is that your last name?
That is the COOLEST name I have ever seen! (well, second to Zaxxon...) 2 points!

Please do!

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

I'm going to patent a method of manually stimulating the male organ to orgasm. And watch out, I have lawyers.

Re:DUPE.

[Rick the Red]

If *I* can remember that this worthless story was a dupe why can't they?

Ohh! I know! Let me, let me! How's this:

Because the "Editors" don't actually read Slashdot

Is that it? Did I get it right?

Re:DUPE.

[RagManX]

I didn't think it was a dupe, I thought the USPTO had done it again. :)

While I was shocked recently to read that the USPTO awarded this patent, imagine how shocked I was today to read that they had awarded it *AGAIN* to someone. I wonder if the two guys who got it will sue each other now?

RagManX

We need a new law tool:

[Anonymous Coward]

"Case dismissed, suing party shot for being total asshole."

Re:USPS Needs a Major Overhaul

[Queuetue]

What do you have against the the postal service?

Re:Prior art has to be out there...

[RealityMogul]

A couple years ago the patent office lost a legal battle over their use of a rubber stamp with the word "DENIED" on it. Apparently someone had a patent on the device, and the USPTO was in violation.

Re:DUPE.

[nate1138]

Did you hear the REAL reason that goatse.cx was taken down?

Darl McBride fell down in a Walmart, spilling his scalding hot coffee on his (very shrivelled) member. He got so hopping mad he called David Boies and said "SUE EVERYBODY". In the resulting shitstorm, a Cease and Decist was accidentally sent to goatse.cx.

And that's how it happened.

Re:DUPE.

[AndroidCat]

Because the "Editors" don't actually read Slashdot

Have a heart, they're probably all sharing Cmdr Taco's (56kbps) pipe.

Re:Please do!

[happyfrogcow]

SCO has prior art for "Method of using lawyers to stimulate the male organ to orgasm"

Re:DUPE.

[rainmanjag]

I know. I'll patent "A method of annoying Slashdot readers by publishing articles about the same exact event twice." That way, it will be illegal to have dupes!

-jag

Re:END Internet Patents NOW!

[geoffspear]

Have you seen most slashdot constituents? They sit in front of computers all day and don't get any exercise. They are that large.

D'oh!

[Decaffeinated Jedi]

Aww, man... and I just had business cards printed up with my email address.

Re:Prior art has to be out there...

[gosand]

A couple years ago the patent office lost a legal battle over their use of a rubber stamp with the word "DENIED" on it. Apparently someone had a patent on the device, and the USPTO was in violation.

So they obviously switched to the un-patented "APPROVED" one, and all is running smoothly...

My patent idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to patent a method for registering an idea or invention in a central location and assigning the idea/invention a unique reference ID number. I bet nobody has done this before.

Now I just need someone to sue....

Profit!

Re:USPTO,

[nocomment]

"Slashdotted" nothin', I just released Yourdoomed.zip into the "wild". We'll see what that does.

Innovative

[jsebrech]

Now the lawyers are getting patents. This was to be expected. If they have to wait for some semi-fraudulent IP business to hire them, they might have to wait several weeks or even months. This way, they get immediate and full benefit from their lowlife tactics. Ingenious.

Method for stopping stupid patents

[Dashing Leech]

I'm thinking of patenting:

"A Process to Patent Methods that are Obvious"

"A Process to Patent Methods that have Prior Art"

Then, all of these people will be violating my patents when they do these sorts of things. It'll stop the stupid patents and/or make me rich. Either way, I'm happy.

If it doesn't pan out, I might follow up by patenting "A Method for Patenting Inventions". That should shut the whole patent office down since they would be violating my patent each time they award any patent.

Re:DUPE.

[amigabill]

Sorry dude, but there's far too much prior art for your petent to be valid. :)

Re:What it will take to challenge

[cptgrudge]

I think the 4) in your post is

4) Win lawsuits