Comments on: the anatomy of a place marker file

By: BOHICA » Blog Archive » Top Tech Tidbits for Thursdays

BOHICA » Blog Archive » Top Tech Tidbits for Thursdays — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:39:04 +0000

[...] The blog’s posts and comments about the place marker controversy made an appearance as Item 3 in this week’s issue. If you are not subscribed to this newsletter, I would strongly recommend subscribing. [...]

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 05:19:38 +0000

I will have to disagree with the conclusion of your article. I do agree that you are making a fine and valid point. That the 2 companies employ different technology to implement place markers in jaws and window-eyes. I do see this. However, I disagree with your conclusion that therefore fs has no valid claim. You do realize that a patent is all about the idea, rather than the implementation of the idea. If fs patented the place marker idea, or concept their claim might still be reasonable.

By: CraigR58

CraigR58 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:07:06 +0000

It really seems to me that it doesn’t matter what you call it but how it works, the same or not the same, is what really matters. If GW Micro changes the name of, “Place Marker” to “Marked Place” or even just to, “Marked.” Would JFW still be sueing? Yes, I think they would but does JFW really care over all about making the web and computer programs accessible to all of those who are Blind and Hearing impaired? over the high price they get for their screen reader? I think not. I hope that GW Micro puts JFW in their place.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 12:38:46 +0000

Your blog is interesting!

Keep up the good work!

By: Law News

Law News — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 09:13:18 +0000

Thanks, this article help me understand about patent.

By: The Good Vibes Radio Blog » Blog Archive » Behind the Curtain, Episode 1

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:27:39 +0000

[...] discussing how Freedom Scientific wants to sue GW Micro over a ridiculous patent violation, and the proof that GW Micro has not violated the [...]

By: Behind the Curtain, Episode 1 | Behind the Curtain

Behind the Curtain, Episode 1 | Behind the Curtain — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 07:03:24 +0000

[...] discussing how Freedom Scientific wants to sue GW Micro over a ridiculous patent violation, and the proof that GW Micro has not violated the [...]

By: Wil

Wil — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:20:51 +0000

Hi Chris

Thanks for the comments. Here is a valid argument to your statement.

Remember Pk Zip? In the program, it was patented technology. Shortly after Pk Zip was released, we had .arj, .rar, .lha, and other similar compression formats we used to compress rograms. This is way back in the DOS days. Why didn’t the manufacturers of Pk Zip go after the writers of these other compression file types? All those formats do the same thing, compress files for smaller sttorage and faster downloads.

Maybe if GW Miro changes the name of the feature, maybe the suit will be dropped. Further down the blog, I have a link to the patent page about the place marker feature. I did read the whole thing, and it is based on the number of tags. Window Eyes bases there incarnation of the Place Marker feature on text, line number or searching for text.

Another good argument is why didn’t Apple go after Microsoft being the Windows operating system looks similar to MAC OS? Why didn’t Kingsford go after Charbroil because they both produce grills? why didn’t Ford go after Chevy because they both produce vehicles?

By: BlindChristian

BlindChristian — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Will,

While your inspection of the data files between those used by JAWS and Window-Eyes was interesting to read; it has no significance regarding patent law.

If I invent a widget and get a patent on it and you start making widgets that do approximately the same thing, you will have violated my patent. Thus, how JAWS and Window-Eyes store their placemarker data is entirely moot in this suit (you can read the entire complaint on Darrell’s Blind Access Journal blog).

This case looks pretty rough for GW who has done so many really cool things in the 7.0 release that I hope it doesn’t cause too much of a distraction from their primary purpose – namely, making access technology for people with vision impairment.