Monte Carlo patent
Julien just pointed me to this incredible patent of the Monte Carlo principle! I cannot see there anything new compared with the principles laid by Ulam, von Neuman and Metropolis in the 40’s… So each time one uses a Monte Carlo estimation of variation, incl. bootstrap, this patent should be acknowledged?! This surely sounds absurd… The worse because those “authors” work at IBM research labs.
August 23, 2011 at 10:42 pm
[…] some small bites: Xi’an’s Og was pointed to a ridiculous patent, maths.net.au pointed to an excellent Australian project […]
August 19, 2011 at 11:04 pm
We should all be paying royalties to Honda everytime a Bayesian Linear Regression Analysis is carried out…
August 19, 2011 at 1:16 am
Fully Bayesian linear regression is (of course ;) also patented:
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/ia.jsp?IA=US2007024164
August 18, 2011 at 4:55 pm
A few years back my major professor showed my a patent some one had filed for the linear model
August 17, 2011 at 6:34 am
It does seem incredible, but what is more amazing is that these sort of patents are commonplace and proliferate in the American system. Indeed, people are citing patents as one of the main reasons that Google just bought Motorola for billions — every large tech company needs loads of these patents of the obvious to counter claims that they are infringing patents owned by others.
There was a good radio program about this a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack
September 7, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Thanks for the link: this NPR program was definitely a must-hear! If anyone here needs the MP3, email me.