[blind_tech] [BCT] FW: [tabi] Fw: Update on Freedom scientific and GWmicro lawsuit
- From: Paul Tandy <paul96cars@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: blind_tech@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:10:23 -0800
---- Original Message ------
From: "Blackjack" <misterblackjack2@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [BCT] FW: [tabi] Fw: Update on Freedom scientific and
GWmicro lawsuit
Date sent: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:11:41 -0400
FYI,
Thanks,
Blackjack
misterblackjack2@xxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: Blackjack [mailto:misterblackjack2@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 9:09 AM
To: Blind Geek Zone
Subject: FW: [tabi] Fw: Update on Freedom scientific and GWmicro
law suit
Hi, I post this here because this is something that concerns the
blind
community. Please read below my thoughts and my thoughts only,
as well as
the information I am sending you all.
Hi, this is good. I my self use Jaws and like it. But I think
Freedom
Scientific the maker of Jaws is just trying to create a monopoly
so they can
be the only screen reader out there. They are trying to do what
MS did years
ago and why they still mostly run the PC OS for most of the PC's
in the
world. Although Apple is doing better in this area, then they
was years ago.
I don't think any technology for us the blind community should
have patents.
I think my self that these type of technology should be open to
be approved
upon to make it better for us. I not saying they owe us anything
but I am
saying we should have all the help we can get! By putting
monopolies on such
technology as this we are chopping off our right arm on getting
this type of
technology improved upon except when the one company wants to
improve on it.
Just my thoughts
Thanks,
Blackjack
misterblackjack2@xxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Easy Talk
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 6:00 AM
To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [tabi] Fw: Update on Freedom scientific and GWmicro law
suit
----- Original Message -----
From: Easy Talk <mailto:easytalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: fcb-l@xxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 5:58 AM
Subject: Update on Freedom scientific and GWmicro law suit
Go GW
Lawsuit Leads to Reconsideration of Patent The U.S. Patent and
Trademark
Office has re-examined a patent held by the maker of a screen
reader for
blind computer users in connection with an infringement lawsuit
filed
against a competing company. Reliable sources hailed the move as
a
significant victory for the defendant.
The
Document Placemarker patent
, held by
Freedom Scientific, Inc.
, covers a specialized screen reading capability that allows a
blind person
to save their position on a Web page and return to the same place
at a later
time. The company's Job Access With Speech (JAWS) screen reading
software
incorporates this feature.
In a July 15, 2008
complaint
filed in the United States District Court, Middle District of
Florida,
Tampa Division, the self-proclaimed "world's leading manufacturer
of
assistive technology products for those who are vision impaired"
accused GW
Micro, the maker of the competing Window-Eyes screen reader, of
deliberate
patent infringement, claiming their placemarker technology is the
same as
that described in the patent. According to court documents,
Freedom
Scientific is seeking an injunction requiring GW Micro to stop
including the
placemarker feature in their product, asks for significant
unspecified
financial compensation for the infringement and requests recovery
of legal
fees.
"I believe that this technology shouldn't have been patented to
begin with,"
said Doug Geoffray, Vice President of Development with GW Micro,
Inc . "It
obviously was around way before what they've done. We have
stated that our
version, Window-Eyes 3.1 back in 1999, had previous position
capability."
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office agreed. In a
re-examination of Freedom
Scientific's patent, at the request of GW Micro's attorneys, the
office
rejected all claims to the invention.
"A person shall be entitled to a patent unless the invention was
patented or
described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country
or in public
use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the
date of
application for patent in the United States," stated a published
document
describing the re-examination as the basis for the patent's
rejection on the
grounds that the technology had already been invented.
The document also cited two existing patents and the availability
of IBM's
Home Page Reader, a product employing place marker technology
prior to the
Freedom Scientific patent, in its reasoning behind the decision.
"We take that as a positive sign," Geoffray said.
"It's a victory," said Dennis Karjala, Jack E. Brown Professor
of Law,
Faculty Fellow, Center for the Study of Law, Science, &
Technology at
Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law .
"There's no
question that, if the re-examination decision is upheld, that's
the end of
it. There is no patent."
He said Freedom Scientific may still have some cards to play in
this case.
"The patent owner in a re-examination proceeding may appeal,"
Karjala said.
"It goes to an appeals board within the Patent Office and then
they can
later seek judicial review. This thing could go on for awhile."
According to the re-examination document, the Patent Office must
receive a
response from Freedom Scientific by Oct. 28 if it wishes to
appeal the
decision.
Karjala said the legal trend points to a probable GW Micro
victory.
"Because the Supreme Court has been reviewing so many of their
cases with an
obvious eye to overturning them, the Patent Office is pretty
sensitive now
that they're being accused of being too patent friendly," said
Karjala. "My
guess is once you got a ruling by the examiner that the patent is
invalid,
I'd say the chances are pretty good it will be upheld by the
board in the
Patent Office. If it's upheld by the board, the chances that a
court would
overturn it in this atmosphere are pretty slim."
Freedom Scientific representatives declined to comment, citing
the ongoing
litigation.
Notes:
The examiner cited
Patent 6085161
describing the invention of a system for assigning and playing
specific
sounds when a Web page changes or the user encounters a specific
Web page
element such as a header or list. All of the claims in Freedom
Scientific's
patent were rejected based on the positioning techniques
described in this
"sonification" system.
The examiner also cited
Patent 7058887
describing a means of determining the position on a Web page
according to
user-defined settings, including the page's domain. This IBM
patent was
referenced in the re-examination as clarification for the
rejection of the
sixth claim.
The examiner also referred to the
IBM Home Page Reader Version 2.5 Manual
.
Ex Parte Re-examination, Control Number 90/010,473, Central
Re-examination
Unit, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Visit the Patent
Application
Information Retrieval Web site and enter the specified control
number to
obtain this document. The Patent Office provides this document
only in
scanned image PDF, which is inaccessible to blind readers. An
accessible
copy of this document has been made available using Kurzweil
K1000 Version
11.03 optical character recognition software.
An accessible copy of Freedom Scientific's complaint was made
available in
the July 24, 2008 article about the lawsuit.
Posted by Darrell at
11:22 AM
email-post.g?blogID=9635497&postID=8847572991238343813
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- » [blind_tech] [BCT] FW: [tabi] Fw: Update on Freedom scientific and GWmicro lawsuit - Paul Tandy
