One of the issues Volano Solutions faced this year when selling our mobile compliance review app Action Card was from a restaurant that expressed concern that they might be held liable for intellectual property patent infringement by using our software. We learned that there was a special breed of bottom feeder that “trolled” published patents, waiting for them to expire so that they could purchase the rights and hold others legally liable for “infringing” on their patent. This was commonly done with software and restaurant chains were targetted. It looks like that phenomenon known as “patent trolling” was dealt a blow by the Supreme Court last week. According to this post from The Verge in regard to the Supreme Court case that serves as precedent, Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank has been one of the most closely watched patent cases of the year. It takes on what patent reform advocates see as the unreasonably broad category of “software patents,” which cover a process implemented on a computer rather than a piece of design or a physical invention. Earlier, the case was said with some degree of hyperbole to spell the “death of software patents,” but this decision doesn’t necessarily stop people from patenting a software “idea,” as long as its technical steps are concrete improvements or new designs, not an aggregation of existing steps.
Some businesses were asking software providers to sign indemnification agreements to assume the liability from any patent troll who decided to file suit over the use of their intellectual property. This case basically states that you cannot simply patent a broad, abstract process, link it to software and hunt down anyone who might be using a specific software system that manages that process. This is good news for software developers that would not like to spend time and resources protecting themselves from the threat of frivolous lawsuits and should alleviate some of the anxieties businesses have about investing in process efficiency technology. As a bonus, it’s nice to see a Supreme Court ruling come down 9-0 and not 5-4.
March 15, 2023
Why continue to utilize a mess of spreadsheets to run your operations? We think there’s a better way. Here are the top 7 reasons you should switch to custom software.
February 3, 2023
Wait. What’s the problem again? Several years ago I was working in Healthcare for a tech startup. At the time, healthcare systems could not bill patients until a chart was signed off and locked by a provider (MD, PA, or NP). The provider had to step through every single screen and check a box regardless […]
September 14, 2022
Why build software of our own? Any good story of a project starts with a problem that needs to be addressed. We work with many clients in the manufacturing vertical and during our time spent with them, we noticed a challenge with synchronization with their dealers. Much of the dealers’ in-office time was spent hunting […]
May 23, 2022
Is local the real secret sauce leaders deploy for a successful development project? Rod Smith, Volano Software Partner, and Co-founder defines the benefits of working with a local development shop.
March 25, 2022
Are you relentlessly passionate about every detail and every pixel when it comes to front-end development? We’re looking to add a Senior Front-end Developer to join our growing team. At Volano, you will work with a variety of clients and projects alongside a remarkable team of back-end and front-end developers, designers, and management to build […]
March 15, 2022
It was 8:00 am on a sunny morning in Hawaii in January. People were hustling to get to their typical morning responsibilities. Cars were on the highway commuting to work, school, and other destinations when all of a sudden chaos breaks out. People start to panic, kids have been thrust down sewers for safety, everyone […]