Lawmakers Debate Patent Immunity For Banks 382
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Now that a small Texas company has a patent on scanning and archiving checks — something every bank does — that has survived a USPTO challenge, lawmakers feel they have to do something about it. Rather than reform patent law, they seem to think it wiser to protect the banks from having to pay billions in royalties by using eminent domain to buy the patent for an estimated $1 billion in taxpayer money, immunizing the banks. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)."
Heh... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Heh... (Score:3, Funny)
Bank Patent #2 (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Or, instead of feeding the patent troll (Score:1, Funny)
Wow, better to spend on a patent than avoid an unnecessary war!
Re:Heh... (Score:5, Funny)
You're kidding, right? No, our legal code is almost entirely like an entire operating system written in undocumented Perl.
I think Dr. Evil got it right this time (Score:3, Funny)
Number 2, "uh, one Billion, sir."
"Thanks, Number Two.... ahem... for ONE BILLION DOLLARS!"
Re:Or, instead of feeding the patent troll (Score:2, Funny)
Start by providing real electronic transfers and bill payments. For example, to transfer money electronically between accounts in two different US banks (e.g. BofA, WellsFargo,
The cheapest solution in the US is to send the money via a check. <sarcasm>We've got this beautiful service where we can do "online" payment, which in practice means that a physical check is printed somewhere in the US, mailed to the recipient who then drop it of at her/his bank to cash it. The bank then probably send the check off to another location where it is *scanned* so it can be archived and verified later. That is what I call an efficient bank system.</sarcasm>
So, maybe DataTreasury is doing us a favor - we might get an improved bank system without checks.
Re:other option... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well, now... (Score:3, Funny)