BitTorent sued yet again - this time for patent infringement

[40hz]

Right when you think the legal system couldn't get any stupider, along comes this article from the good folks over at ONews.com :

Right, well, this is new. We know of countless copyright lawsuits being thrown about regarding BitTorrent - but what about a patent lawsuit? A company which, for now, has all the airs of a classic patent troll, has sued BitTorrent, Inc. and uTorrent, claiming the BitTorrent protocol violates some vague software patent. No connection to the mafia RIAA/MPAA/etc. has been found yet, but I won't be surprised.
The company in question is Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network, a San-Francisco based... Uh, yeah, we don't really know what they do yet. All we know is that they own a patent titled 'Media file distribution with adaptive transmission protocols', and was granted in 2007. While that's way after the introduction of the BitTorrent protocol (2001), the patent was filed in 2009. The company is seeking damages and all that jazz.

Upon looking at the patent, it describes a system that doesn't look like the BitTorrent protocol at all. The patent describes a system built around files stored on a central server, completely ignoring the many-to-many clients aspect that makes BitTorrent so immensely useful.

Link to full article here.

It just doesn't get any dumber than this.  

[Renegade]

Some things make me want to SCREAM~!

Most of the illustrations in the patent are hand drawn even...

I'd love for the web to find out who is behind all this. All we know is that the company is supposed to have an office at 500 Pine St., San Francisco, CA 94108, at phone number 415-263-0949. Google Maps shows and empty lot at this location, but of course, Google Maps could be outdated.

Y'know... They'd be a good target for LulzSec to forward their phone number on~! Muahahahahah~!

[40hz]

Most of the illustrations in the patent are hand drawn even...

FYI - they are because it's required under law, and the USPO has very strict rules and legal requirements for those illustrations. As a result, there's a well-established ("vintage") style and look for them that you don't deviate from if you want your patent to be considered. It's a specialty art form and there are service bureaus that do that and nothing else.  Google "patent illustration" if you're interested.
 

[Renegade]

Most of the illustrations in the patent are hand drawn even...

FYI - they are because it's required under law, and the USPO has very strict rules and legal requirements for those illustrations. As a result, there's a well-established ("vintage") style and look for them that you don't deviate from if you want your patent to be considered. It's a specialty art form and there are service bureaus that do that and nothing else.  Google "patent illustration" if you're interested.
 

-40hz (June 20, 2011, 08:39 AM)

I fail to understand the point behind that. It's simple enough to create fake "hand drawn" illustrations. Oh well... Who am I to question the logic of the US Patent Office...

Thanks for the FYI though. I didn't know that.

[Renegade]

Oh... And I'm still screaming inside.

Every time I see some shit like this, a little piece of hope inside me dies.

[40hz]

^Understood.
You take the high keening scream.  I'll do the "low hopeless wail" and we can perform duets. 

[40hz]

Most of the illustrations in the patent are hand drawn even...

FYI - they are because it's required under law, and the USPO has very strict rules and legal requirements for those illustrations. As a result, there's a well-established ("vintage") style and look for them that you don't deviate from if you want your patent to be considered. It's a specialty art form and there are service bureaus that do that and nothing else.  Google "patent illustration" if you're interested.
 

-40hz (June 20, 2011, 08:39 AM)

I fail to understand the point behind that. It's simple enough to create fake "hand drawn" illustrations. Oh well... Who am I to question the logic of the US Patent Office...

Thanks for the FYI though. I didn't know that.

-Renegade (June 20, 2011, 08:43 AM)

It's not the hand-drawn so much.  It's just the rules and conventions for how they're supposed to present information that really does make them more an issue of 'art' than graphic design. So I guess its just easier to let somebody draw it. Also harder to say it was directly lifted from something else if you forget about things like scanners and tracing paper. (Or artists like my older sister who can do a hand copy of anything and make it look just like the original. The forgery guild lost a great prospect when she went into legitimate graphic design and communications.)

Plus it's what's expected - so I'm sure a comfortable inertia has a lot to do with why it's still done this way. The only reason the USPO dropped the requirement for submitting a physical scale model of the invention with its patent application was because they ran out of storage space for them - not because they didn't think it was a good idea to require them.