Comments on: Crushed blackberries? http://blog.geeklawyer.org/2006/02/24/crushed-blackberries/ A barrister gossips & rants on intellectual property law, the legal system and civil liberties. Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:47:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Vendorprisey http://blog.geeklawyer.org/2006/02/24/crushed-blackberries/#comment-1241 Vendorprisey Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:53:09 +0000 http://blog.geeklawyer.org/?p=394#comment-1241 [...] Geeklawyer (Another good law blog — blawg) mentioned a similar thing when discussing the Blackberry case. The adverse policy implications of patents are often rather hard to communicate to the public. The appalling state of the American Patent Office is generally of interest to no-one but digital rights activists patentees and their lawyers. The Blackberry debacle brings this into profound relief. News coverage seems to consist of large numbers of people all repeating the theme: “My life depends on this. If I can’t get my emails I’m in real trouble. This could be a personal disaster“. Geeklawyer suspects that if you told these people that they are in this position because of a weak patent examination procedure caused by a combination of underfunding and policy skewed towards the applicant, as a result of corporate lobbying, they would march to Virginia and torch the place. Assuming, that is, that someone hasn’t already patented public torchings. [...] […] Geeklawyer (Another good law blog — blawg) mentioned a similar thing when discussing the Blackberry case. The adverse policy implications of patents are often rather hard to communicate to the public. The appalling state of the American Patent Office is generally of interest to no-one but digital rights activists patentees and their lawyers. The Blackberry debacle brings this into profound relief. News coverage seems to consist of large numbers of people all repeating the theme: “My life depends on this. If I can’t get my emails I’m in real trouble. This could be a personal disaster“. Geeklawyer suspects that if you told these people that they are in this position because of a weak patent examination procedure caused by a combination of underfunding and policy skewed towards the applicant, as a result of corporate lobbying, they would march to Virginia and torch the place. Assuming, that is, that someone hasn’t already patented public torchings. […]

]]> By: Ruthie http://blog.geeklawyer.org/2006/02/24/crushed-blackberries/#comment-1240 Ruthie Tue, 28 Feb 2006 08:26:43 +0000 http://blog.geeklawyer.org/?p=394#comment-1240 Ruthie read somewhere that people have become so obsessive about their e mails that their self esteem suffers when their in box is empty. Its all about a tragic need to be important. But the most important people do not have mobile phones or in boxes...they have people to sort these things. Can you imagine the Queen texting away? There is still a device called a telephone which is remarkably effective at conveying information. Ruthie wonders if e mail had been invented before the phone then we would all now be ringing each other all day long... Ruthie read somewhere that people have become so obsessive about their e mails that their self esteem suffers when their in box is empty. Its all about a tragic need to be important. But the most important people do not have mobile phones or in boxes…they have people to sort these things. Can you imagine the Queen texting away?

There is still a device called a telephone which is remarkably effective at conveying information. Ruthie wonders if e mail had been invented before the phone then we would all now be ringing each other all day long…

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