RE: Shopping Carts under a Company breaking the law???

This message was sent from: E-Commerce Laws
http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtopic.php?p=110517#110517
----------------------------------------------------------------

This is an extremely important topic, and I am surprised there has not been more discussion in this board on this topic.  Here is a recent article in the L.A. Times (free registration required to view the article):

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-patent8feb08,1,4372485.story?coll=la%2Dhome%2Dheadlines

From the article:
"If you're selling online, at the most recent count there are 4,319 patents you could be violating," said David E. Martin, chief executive of M-Cam Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based risk-management firm specializing in patents. "If you also planned to advertise, receive payments for or plan shipments of your goods, you would need to be concerned about approximately 11,000."

It seems to me that this issue needs to be addressed legislatively.  It is hard to believe that patents were ever construed as a device for anyone to totally dominate an entire industry, which is what the patents under discussion would do.  Starting this week, I intend to call my reps and senators in congress and see what they think about software patents in general and about this case in particular.

More later on my results.