Hypocrite - Credit: brettlider on Flickr (CC BY-SA)

An interesting article at Ars Technica states that Article One Partners should try busting their own patents.

Founder and patent attorney Cheryl Milone thought the idea was so good she’s—wait for it—filed an application for a patent on it. The submission to the U.S. Patent Office describes a method for:

a. displaying on a computer network for access by a plurality of information providers, i. an information request, and ii. a description of compensation for at least one of said information providers who provides information responsive to said information request

The application goes on to describe a Byzantine series of variations on how to compensate “information providers” and how to make money off the information provided—by auctioning it off, say, or by investing in the competitors of a company holding an invalid patent.

But there does seem to be a fair amount of “prior art” here. The Patent Office itself runs an online effort called Peer-to-Patent that seeks to crowdsource scrutiny of applications. (One that, it may be worth noting, is likely to fare less well if researchers with relevant expertise are selling their information to Article One.)

…

Oh, and this one’s free, Article One: We’ll take the $50k next time.

I thought a second post would be better than an update to the first.  What are your alls thoughts on this?  This is quite saddening.

• Ars Technica