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Software patents are a huge drag on small companies and innovative large ones, it's just that large companies are better able to handle the costs. Our world would be better if we ended software patents. Check out FSF's campaign to end software patents: https://endsoftwarepatents.org.
Honestly the entire patent system should be thrown out / winded down. Nothing but dead weight, especially when huge countries like China completely ignore them.
We can find other ways to finance "innovation".
I have a family member who used to work in pharmaceutical R&D. I personally know nothing about the industry so maybe it's nonsense, but she once told me that nobody would make anything in that industry if it wasn't for patents. R&D costs are astronomical. Once you release a drug, it needs high margins in order to make back the R&D costs. But the problem is: once you release your drug it immediately gets reverse engineered and other facilities can mass-produce it and undercut you hard.
Anyway it's likely I misunderstood something there since again I know nothing. But after hearing that, I considered that while software patents are obviously bad, maybe they make some sense in other industries.
I honestly can't think of a single incidence of the patent system promoting innovation in the last 20 years.
For small companies patents are basically worthless, a big company can just play legal ropeadope until they run out of money.
We need a way to encourage innovation and patents do work for that. The issue is not patent per see, the issue is the US patent office.
There is next to zero proper due diligence done for a patent to be awarded and there is no consequence to the office for issuing invalid patents. Just significantly raising examination fees, getting the patent office on the hook for issuance of invalid patents and fining companies filling for frivolous patents would solve most if not all of the current issues.
I leave investigating why it's not done as an exercise to the reader.
>especially when huge countries like China completely ignore them.
Excellent point, and it's the same with some proposed AI Laws.
That campaign is an initiative from the FSF, by the way, though it's not surprising the EFF may also be promoting it.
This isn't a software patent.
The actual patent seems to be https://patents.google.com/patent/US9794348B2/en
It's incredibly generic; it basically just describes the computer from Star Trek: "computer, where is captain Picard?" There's a little bit more to it, but not much. There's also a number of very similar patents in the Patent Citations section with only superficial differences, so it's not even the first patent on this.
Nothing was innovated here beyond the obvious; this patent shouldn't have been approved. The idea is that either 1) investments are protected by granting exclusive rights for a limited period, and 2) the public benefits by making the innovation public so they can benefit after the exclusive rights expire. But neither is the case here: there was no innovation here beyond writing the patent, and the public doesn't benefit because it's a generic high-level description like we've seen in science fiction for many decades.
Whether patents are even a good or bad thing in the first place doesn't even come in to play.
I'm not sure how this idea is even considered unique in the computing world as we have been able to talk to computers for decades.
For example, Dargon's Naturally Speaking is several decades old and it lets you talk to the computer with the computer translates those voice commands into computer actions. It's hands free, voice controlled computing.
IIRC the patent office cracked down on bullshit like this around a decade ago? This one precedes that though.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/white-house-plan-cracks-down-on-p...
I would love to see a broad effort to certify, promote, and support open source privacy respecting devices from smart watches like pinetime, open laptops and phones, routers, even CPAP devices.
it's incredibly important for us to have maintainable open alternatives to the proprietary hellscape I see even when trying to purchase the most mundane devices.
some markets lacking open alternatives now:
security cameras
smart speakers
CPAPs
working OSS phones
wireless routers (shipped with open firmware)
automotive diagnostic/programming software
smart TVs
smart scales
air tags
smart thermostats
personal weather stations
Here are some ways you could rank devices:
Open API with documentation?
Open Source Firmware that can be deployed and updated by the user.
Open Source hardware specification (think RISC V)
Does this device produce data in an open format or standard?
Does the device send data to the manufacturer or third parties?
Does this device depend on cloud infrastructure the end user cannot control or replace with their own?
Does this device require you to install a mobile app to configure or manage it?
Can the device be repaired or upgraded?
What is the typical support lifetime by the manufacturer for software updates?
What is the MTBF?
Does the device have a secure supply chain?
Are cad files available to support modding and repair?
> CPAPs
> automotive diagnostic/programming software
The regulatory evidence you need to submit, the standards you need to comply with and the quality control you need throughout the whole manufacturing process makes it near impossible to deliver community driven open-source medical devices unless it's a 'wellness' (not medical device) or maybe class I medical device.
You could argue that Manufacturers could design open hardware and let people modify code at will on their custom CPAP but it would be very difficult to navigate legal liability. If someone modifies their custom CPAP and makes a firmware change that drastically increases pressure and a patient suffers barotrauma who is liable?
The same can be said for safety critical firmware in automotive (excluding infotainment etc.). Diagnostics/Logging sure have at it, but actual firmware changes I would prefer that we let manufacturers do that. A 4 tonne vehicle at 100 Km/h can hurt a lot more people than just a tinkering driver.
Have taken a look at Mozilla's Privacy Not Included project? https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/
Over the weekend my wife was saying how nice it would be to have a "hey google" that wasn't sending data to Google all the time. My wife is not a tech person, but she was really creeped out be having a conversation with a daughter about music, and then having the artist my daughter mentioned show up in her YouTube music feed. Could have been coincidence... but...
And now due to this patent trolling the Googles of the world don't have to worry about people side stepping their surveillance and cutting into their profits. Not that there's a conspiracy. But it really sucks that these deeply entrenched mechanisms in our economy just keep taking freedom from surveillance away from people.
It's more likely that the daughter played music from that artist on YouTube, and your public IP address was associated to it in YouTube's data.
Still sketchy, just less mysterious.
It probably saw the daughter accessed stuff from a home IP address so suggested stuff to every device on that same IP.
It's not coincidence. Google does this with articles in the Android assistant when you do searches on a separate device. Everything that can be linked to a common owner will have ads blasted to it based on their consumer profiling.
N=1, i was talking to my father over Meta’s messenger about my plans for the future. I mentioned doing research in $Country, a visit to the grocery store later and the ads in my messenger app were for a research degree in $country.
We were even speaking in a mixture of english and $language, and it still figured stuff out.
Unfortunately i cant get my friends and family to adopt a more privacy friendly platform.
I never had to solve that problem in detail, but - check the software you have installed, linked in any way to a microphone, and its permissions, and all the "contracts" (licences) you may sign or have signed.
Some who are spared from that phenomenon of eavesdropping have followed that path.
[Edit: It appears there were at least two suits filed by the same patent troll. The first was in east Texas and was dropped by February 13, 2020 (https://web.archive.org/web/20200305135828/https://mycroft.a...). However, five days later, on February 18, 2020, the same patent troll entity filed a second suit in Kansas City (https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2020/03/30/mycro...). According to the latter article, their projected costs to fighting the suit were already at least ~1/4 million$ three years ago (March 2020).]
According to a subsequent suit filed by the patentee's attorney, the patentee voluntarily withdrew the suit in the Eastern District of Texas after its lawyer and the lawyer's family were subjected to a targeted campaign of harassment and cyber attacks. [0] The patentee then re-filed the case in Mycroft's home state of Missouri. [1]
[0] Tumey L.L.P. et al v. Mycroft AI Inc. et al Case No. 4:21-cv-00113 (W.D. Mo.) Complaint https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/egpbkqlzqvq/...
[1] Id. at 13.
It's possible the patent troll spooked some investors and caused them to back out.
Have you read the article text or just the headline? The article says the same thing you're saying (trill dropped the case) & cites legal costs already incurred by then as being a burden on mycroft.
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[Edit] Ok you've edited so my reply no longer makes sense, but one case or two there would be legal costs to mycroft regardless.
> Voice Tech Corp., based in Tyler, Texas, filed suit Feb. 18 in federal court in Kansas City, accusing Mycroft of infringing on its patent for using voice commands from a mobile device to remotely access and control a computer.
I'm sure there's some prior art to be found here, but the lawyer fees are still going to be a lot to fight it. Sounds like that's what doomed them.
Tyler Texas Patent Trolls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8XknFl1l_8
I was excited about this project, so I'm saddened by this news.
Having said that, I'm a little confused by the outcome here. What I really want is a pre-built piece of hardware that runs the Mycroft open source project, so I don't have to go figure out which speaker and microphone array works with whatever Raspberry Pi clone I can actually find in stock at the moment. I would be a little disappointed if there were no longer an entity working on the software itself, but honestly all I ever use this type of device for is 1) setting timers 2) checking the weather 3) playing music, so assuming those things work reasonably okay with the current software, I'm not really in need of further innovation here.
Back to the hardware - what am I missing? Can I buy this? The Mark I seems to no longer be manufactured and the Mark II is what seems to have now become vaporware because of this litigation. I understand it might not be a loss leader like a Google Nest Home Assistant Hub Device (I've given up on actually understanding Google's naming anymore), but it really shouldn't be that expensive for a "dumb" smart speaker. Does anyone make this? I'd prefer no proprietary hardware, but I'd accept a somewhat-closed piece of hardware if it could run software of my choosing.
According to the page, you can still buy the Hardware, it's made by a "partner" and it's self funding
"Which brings us to the present day. We will still be shipping all orders that are made through the Mycroft website, because these sales directly cover the costs of producing and shipping the products. However we do not have the funds to continue fulfilling rewards from this crowdfunding campaign, or to even continue meaningful operations."[1]
1.https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aiforeveryone/mycroft-m...
Had the MyCroft team made a dedicated funding project for their legal defense, I would have gladly funded it as would many others, because fuck patent trolls.
Too many open source projects deal with this sort of thing in secret until it is too late.
We really need an open source project patent troll defense fund that reigns millions in legal hell down on the first to try to hit any company protected under it including counter-suing for damages until it sinks them. Also hire private investigators to find the real names and backgrounds of every asshole on the other side of the suit, and anyone who supports them. Make everything public to the furthest extent of the law and socially bankrupt them all.
We need public scorched earth to send a message anyone else that tries to hit any other protected projects.
No direct mentions of the patents in the article, but indirectly through an older article[0]. The patents in question seem to be [1][2] (both the same?!).
> A method of using voice commands from a mobile device to remotely access and control a computer. The method includes receiving audio data from the mobile device at the computer. The audio data is decoded into a command. A software program that the command was provided for is determined. At least one process is executed at the computer in response to the command. Output data is generated at the computer in response to executing at least one process at the computer. The output data is transmitted to the mobile device.
How can a patent like this pass? This is absolutely ridiculous. Patents relating to CS are utterly broken, people need to demand the government to step in since it is impossible for small players to fight them, hence it stifles innovation.
0. https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/12/mycroft_patent_troll/
> But what truly killed the company and product, he claimed, were expenses related to ongoing litigation.
Some of this cost includes defending against the lawsuit alleging that Mycroft and its principals initiated or called for a campaign of cyber attacks and harassment against the lawyer for the patentee and his family. [0]
[0] See, e.g., Tumey L.L.P. et al v. Mycroft AI Inc. et al Case No. 4:21-cv-00113 (W.D. Mo.) https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/egpbkqlzqvq/...
I'm super bummed to hear this. I got my order in very early and am fortunate to have actually received mine. The unit itself is pretty bulky, it turns on/off lights via home assistant well, but feels pretty half baked because it doesn't do much more than that.
Very disappointing to see. I knew something was up since Mike Hansen, the engineer maintaining their Mimic3 offline TTS model, mentioned being let go in the open GitHub issues.
https://github.com/MycroftAI/mimic3
Mike seems to have kept the effort going with his larynx2 project. I was thrilled at the results their model produced so I hope to see more from it.
I liked how the GNOME community dealt with their patent troll. IIRC the patent is no longer allowed to be enforced.
I do not understand why he does not move the project to, say, France and show the middle finger to the patent troll.
Sounds like the litigation has been dropped, but the $1m in attorneys fees already paid was a loss too large to bear.
If you want to sell to people in the US, then US patents still matter.
This is a shame.
Doesn't US businesses have legal insure to cover situations like this?
there isn't a lot of "litigation fee insurance" that is affordable.
No
How would that work. This is a kickstarter project
Why not come to the EU? That simple.
That's very sad
Ah well, sad to hear. I've tried it a while back and the architecture with skills being separate diy-able scripts looked promising, but overall it wasn't all that usable.
Eventually it would've been steamrolled by a GPT based assistant anyway.
I’m trying it right now and the initial results seem promising. The openai whisper voice to text works nearly flawlessly and everything else seems to be falling into place. I’m thinking of using local gpt or similar models to classify and then distribute requests to more programmed scripts.