I saw a recent BusinessWeek article about VoIP and Patents, and I was floored to hear that the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) has reportedly issued 2,049 patents related to VoIP.
Two of the most recent patents issued were to IBM and Intel, for what they are calling a “conversations computing system” and a “digital browser phone” respectively.
Is it just me or did nobody else have the foresight to patent the process of placing calls over the Internet before now? The list of companies that make calls over the Internet is huge, and while 85 or so VoIP providers are no longer part of the list, it’s still a big list. Maybe one of them should have the right to sue all the others for infringing on their patent? I wonder… And what about VocalTec? They must have submitted something to the patent office.
This of course prompted me to do a Google search on “silly patents” and “crazy patents” … I never imagined how many truly “innovative” folks are out there.
And when it comes to something like United States Patent 5443036, how come I didn't think of submitting that for approval first?
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