{"id":274009,"date":"2018-09-02T15:25:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-02T13:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=274009"},"modified":"2018-09-02T15:26:51","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T13:26:51","slug":"google-must-stop-trying-to-patent-public-domain-algorithm-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/274009-google-must-stop-trying-to-patent-public-domain-algorithm-use.html","title":{"rendered":"Google must stop trying to patent Public Domain Algorithm use"},"content":{"rendered":"

By EFF Deeplinks Blog.<\/em><\/p>\n

At EFF, we often criticize software patents that claim small variations on known techniques. These include a patent on\u00a0updating software over the Internet<\/a>, a patent on\u00a0out-of-office email<\/a>, and a patent on\u00a0storing data in a database<\/a>. Now, Google is trying to patent the use of a known data compression algorithm – called\u00a0asymmetric numeral systems<\/a>(ANS) \u2013 for video compression. In one sense, this patent application is fairly typical.<\/p>\n

The system seems designed to encourage tech giants to flood the Patent Office with applications for every little thing they do. Google\u2019s application stands out, however, because the real inventor of ANS did everything he could to dedicate his work to the public domain.<\/p>\n

Jarek Duda\u00a0developed ANS<\/a>\u00a0from 2006-2013. When he published his work, he wanted it to be available to the public free of restrictions. So he was disappointed to learn that Google was trying to patent the use of his algorithm.<\/p>\n

In his view, Google\u2019s patent application merely applied ANS to a standard video compression pipeline. Earlier this summer, Timothy B. Lee of Ars Technica published a\u00a0detailed article<\/a>\u00a0about the patent application and Duda\u2019s attempt to stop it.<\/p>\n

This week, the Patent Office issued a\u00a0non-final rejection<\/a>\u00a0of all claims in Google\u2019s application. The examiner rejected the claims on a number of grounds. First, he found the three broadest claims ineligible under\u00a0Alice v CLS Bank<\/a><\/em>, which holds that abstract ideas do not become eligible for a patent merely because they are implemented on a generic computer.<\/p>\n

The examiner rejected all of the claims for lack of clarity and for claiming functions that are not described with sufficient detail (applicants are often able to overcome these kinds of rejections with an amendment).<\/p>\n

The examiner also rejected all of Google\u2019s claims as obvious in light of Duda\u2019s work, in combination with an\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0by Fabian Giesen and a\u00a020 year-old patent<\/a>\u00a0on data management in a video decoder.<\/p>\n

Duda had made a third-party submission to ensure his work was before the examiner. Notably, this is a non-final rejection (and even final rejections at the Patent Office are\u00a0not really final<\/a>). This means Google can still amend its claims and\/or argue that the examiner was wrong.<\/p>\n

It is time for Google to abandon its attempt to patent the use of ANS for video compression. Even if it could overcome the examiner\u2019s rejection, that would only reflect the failings of a patent system hands out patents for\u00a0tiny variations on existing methods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It may be that Google is seeking the patent solely for defensive purposes. In other contexts, Google has worked to make video codecs\u00a0royalty free<\/a>. But that doesn\u2019t make it okay for one of the world\u2019s biggest companies to get a software patent on a minor tweak to someone else\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is unlikely that Google would assert an ANS patent in the short or medium term. But many\u00a0once-dominant companies<\/a>\u00a0have turned to their\u00a0patent portfolios<\/a>\u00a0as their star has faded.<\/p>\n

ANS should not belong to tech giants willing to push applications through a compliant Patent Office. ANS should belong to all of us.<\/p>\n

EFF<\/a><\/p>\n

Now read:\u00a0Why caller ID is free on prepaid, but not on contract<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Google is trying to patent the use of a known data compression algorithm,” stated the EFF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":256041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[4370,167,35],"class_list":["post-274009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-algorithmics","tag-google","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274009"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274015,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274009\/revisions\/274015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}