My University Patent-Trolled Dropbox, SpiderOak (and others)

cazetofamo · April 5, 2017

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/04/louisiana-tech-university-patents-file-folders-then-goes-trolling/

Okay, so, full disclaimer. I go to school here and the professor mentioned in this article will probably be my professor in the next year or so... so...

Quote

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is hoping that the saga of US Patent No. 8,473,532 will serve as a reminder that many universities aren't doing what they can to make the patent system work better. The '532 patent, "Method and apparatus for automatic organization for computer files," describes little more than a system of sorting files into folders. That alone would be enough to make it the Electronic Frontier Foundation's pick for "Stupid Patent of the Month."

In September, Louisiana Tech went on to strike a deal with an entity called Micoba LLC to enforce the patent, which resulted in a series of 11 lawsuits filed later in the year, all in the Eastern District of Texas. Defendants in those lawsuits include seven defendants that already appear to have settled the claims, since the federal court records show their cases are closed: Syncplicity, iDrive, Dropbox, SpiderOak, Workshare Technology, Egnite, and Carbonite. Four other companies—Asustek, Box, Citrix, and SugarSync—have ongoing litigation.

Yeah. My school is in the news for suing Dropbox among others.

Essentially what the patent is for is automating the process of putting files of a similar type into the same directory.

Here's the specifics:

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A computer system comprising a processor, memory, and software for automatically organizing computer files into folders, said software causing said computer system to execute the steps comprising:

a. providing a directory of folders, wherein substantially each of said folders is represented by a description;

b. providing a new computer file not having a location in said directory, said computer file being represented by a description;

c. comparing said description of said computer file to descriptions of a plurality of said folders along a single path from a root folder to a leaf folder; and

d. assigning said computer file to a folder having the most similar description.

According to the article, Dr. Choi was not responding to their emails. I swung by his office on the way to class (right down the hall) and lo and behold, door closed and lights seemingly off (although this is pretty normal. He actually doesn't spend much time in his office from what I hear unless it's it's his office hours and he's required to be there).

The head of the CS Dept. here told our class that it's kinda stupid, but we're legally in the right and the university does what it does.

I believe he said something to the effect of the university having deals with these companies and they didn't hold up there end, but I'm not 100% sure, I was studying for a test I had right after that class.

He also informed us that the university has several patent deals with large companies, such as Google (most of those being in the realm of Cyber Security).

So yea, Go Bulldogs!

Edited April 5, 2017 by cazetofamo
Made Title Catchier