patent troll

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has decided on another stupid patent of the month [1], and in this case it relates to geographic information visualized on the internet (aka web maps). Sometimes entertaining, sometimes frustrating read. In any case, I think it's good to know about such practices, if only to be prepared when such a patent troll knocks at our doors. Fortunately, it seems that he days of this particular practice are numbered.

This month's Stupid Patent Award of the Electronic Frontier Foundation [1] goes to a company we all know well, and is about a process we all think we know in and out since decades: Peer-reviewing! Although Elsevier was forced to narrow the scope of their particular peer reviewing process during the patent application procedure, it still contains many elements which are inherent and generic to all peer reviewing processes. We will see what will be the impact of this absurd patent.