Carnegie Mellon v. Marvell Leads to Another $1 Billion Patent Jury Verdict

Dennis Crouch at Patently-O
reports on Carnegie Mellon v. Marvell: Another $1b verdict.

Again, the question is, why work?

Train your children in patents, parents!

Here is the "invention" whose patent was infringed, as Crouch writes:

"Apparently a key distinguishing factor from the prior art is that the decoding functions used are "selected from a set of signal-dependent functions." The asserted claims do not identify the particular functions used, only that functions are used."

As one comment there put it, there is of course some question here about the patent eligibility of the subject matter....

Or, as another comment observed, is it enough to obtain patent protection to "take some signals and perform a specific mathematical process on them." ?

On the other hand, this is a great way to fill university bank accounts, and, indeed, the verdict, as Crouch notes, is larger than CMU's endowment! All those inveterate scientists and innovators out there need money!

So, to greet 2013, we can affirm that the patently absurd patent train locomotive is still going forward with full force.