How “inventions” really happen

Posted on Facebook in 2014, when the EFF was fighting a patent troll who claimed to have invented podcasting. #

• You couldn’t have had podcasting without a lot of things coming together. #

• Networks of writers who shared links. Blogging.#
• A protocol for moving links around a network. HTTP.#
• Something to attach links and recordings to. RSS.#
• A standard format for recording. MP3.#
• Inexpensive, easy to use playback devices, that could hook up to all this. iPod.#

You might argue that we still haven’t gotten all the pieces needed for it to really work. But one thing is for sure, none of the pieces existed when the famous patent troll claims to have invented podcasting. #

Maybe we should reach not for a victory but for understanding. The patent system is making decisions about technological processes it doesn’t understand. No wonder it gets it so wrong.#