Supreme Court Orders Do-Over On Key Software Patents

Fluffeh writes "It seems that the U.S. Supreme Court has an itch it just can't scratch. A patent granted to the Ultramercial company covers the concept of allowing users to watch a pre-roll advertisement as an alternative to paying for premium content and the company is demanding fees from the likes of Hulu and YouTube. Another company called WildTangent, however, is challenging Ultramercial's 'invention' as merely an abstract idea not eligible for patent protection. Add to this a recent ruling by the Supreme Court restricting patents — albeit on medical diagnostic techniques — and you get into a bit of a pickle. The Supreme Court is now sending the Ultramercial case back to the lower courts for another round, which doesn't mean that the court disagrees with the original ruling, but rather that it thinks it is a patent case that is relevant to the situation and they want to re-examine it under this new light."

Meanwhile...

[betterunixthanunix]

Try as I might, I seem to be unable to get a patent on Euclid's algorithm.

Re:Meanwhile...

[Rogerborg]

Add, "...on a computer", noob.

Re:What else is there to say?

[isopropanol]

Hell froze over; I'm siding with WildTangent.

Re:Meanwhile...

[ColdWetDog]

"On a social network running on a computer attached to the Internet."

I win!

Re:Guess whose bootysnap I'm gonna violate?

[RenderSeven]

No I like their tactics [wikipedia.org] and we should all help MyCleanPC [somethingawful.com], since MyCleanPC [wikipedia.org] needs better rankings so that MyCleanPC [youtube.com] users can find more information about MyCleanPC [angelopc.com] and interact with others that want to use MyCleanPC [backpage.com]. "MyCleanPC [angelfire.com]", they will say, "is so kool I want more stuff just like MyCleanPC [nih.gov]!". Three cheers for MyCleanPC [fbi.gov], MyCleanPC [riaa.org], MyCleanPC [goatse.ru]!!!

I for one welcome our new search engine robot overlords!