This post was supposed to be about the Creative Commons, a new organization dedicated to finding innovative ways to allow others to use your creations without committing to the full restrictions of copyright or to the wild frontier of public domain. See the explanation animation (in Flash) for more about the CC concept.

I say “supposed to” because as I was about to begin typing, my eye glanced across a bill from my telephone company, Qwest. On that document — just a phone bill — the footer reads “This bill is protected by one or more of the following U.S. Patents: Des. 385,298; 390,599; 5,845,942; and 5,951,052.”

There was nothing remarkable about the bill, so I looked up the ‘052 patent to see what was invented. The innovation is apparently perpendicular text. Yes, you read right. “Information (e.g., text) in the information panels is oriented in a first direction, and information in the remittance panel (e.g., text) is oriented in a second direction, perpendicular to the first direction.”

I’m impressed with what the Creative Commons is doing, and I wish them luck. But if this Qwest junk is an example of what’s getting intellectual property protection these days, we’re going to need far-reaching, legislative changes. Starting with the patent office.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 11th, 2003 at 1:29 am and is filed under Law & Politics, WtF.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.