News Microsoft patents GPU video encoding

Unfortunately, patents back date to when they are applied for since MS would have likely applied for a provisional patent back then. So yah, everyone's quite screwed.

 

It seems the patent process has changed at some point. I remember reading as a kid that initially the patent application for the Coleman lantern was rejected, as the Patent Office couldn't comprehend how it worked. The inventor had to build a new model made of glass so they could see the inner workings of it. Granted, this story may be apocryphal or I might be remembering wrongly. However, it seems that back then, if you didn't have a working example in hand, they sent you on your merry way. Coming to them with an idea (like the jackass that was granted a patent on swinging side to side on a swing) got you nothing back then. What changed?

 

The whole concept of patents was great when it first started. Now it's become a nightmare. Allowing people or organizations to patent ideas and concepts without showing a viable product is ludicrous.

Patents now are just used by trolls as a tool to make money from others that actually do the hard work and bring the concept to life. WTF?

 

Wishful rules of patents:

1) Patenting a technology concept without actual making the concept will result in patent cancellation
2) Requesting a patent without proven working concept will be rejected.

 

Only morons, such as the USPTO, would grant Microsoft this patent at this time. Sorry, don't have anything new to bring to the table other than my complete bafflement.

 

Just another way for MS to bash the Open Source community over the head... Just like the massive subsidies to Dell (et al) to exclude sales of machines preinstalled with GNU/Linux distros. Great thanks (again) to the USA...