Google Instant is a "Copyright Infringement" by itself, says Author | WWWery

We have been in continuous talks with Mr. Pal Sahota (from U.K.), who claims to have "invented search-as-you-type (a.k.a Instant Search)" back in 1989 (not without proof), a time when nobody thought it was even possible… 1989! That’s even before Google came into being! [Google filed the patent for Instant Search in 2004, and was granted patent in Nov. 2010.]

Here’s is his open letter, with proof, talking how Google not only infringed his copyrights (intellectual property), but has also patented it as its own technology.

"I want the recognition and reward for this. USPTO didn’t do enough research when granting ‘instant’ patent, now they are unwilling to investigate their own mistake. Are they corrupt?"

HIS OPEN LETTER…

22 December 2010

Author

Pal Sahota

PAL Systems Ltd

A recent patent has been granted to Google for ‘instant’ search United States Patent 7836044. I understand that Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and others have also patients on similar products. I believe this to be a prior art pioneered by me in 1989. My name is Pal Sahota and I invented search-as-you-type in 1989. Below is the link to my blog which contains all the information on search-as-you-type including its history / development and 2 Youtube videos.

(Here’s my blog)

In the UK and in Europe it was not possible to obtain patents for software until recently but software was automatically covered under the copyright laws. Please view the 2 links regarding this.

Software bill was thrown out (July 2005) as software was already covered by copyright.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4655955.stm

High Court rewrites UK software patent rules in 2008

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2212353/symbian-wins-software-patent/

I believe that Google is infringing on my copyright for the following reasons. They are also using the name search-as-you-type in the format I used which can be clearly seen from the newspaper cuttings on my blog.

I found the details of the Google patent on the below site. Please note my comments at the end of this article.

http://wwwery.com/10010-google-patents-instant-search.html

The way Google search infringes on my ‘user-interface’ irrespective of the type of records (websites or drug data) or the type of software involved in the search. The basic principle is that the redundant time between each key press is used to search the database. As the user starts to type, the data is block read into memory which is then processed at each key press and displayed. ”. The “flow diagrams” would have been almost identical to Google’s if I had been allowed to patent the product in the UK in 1989.

Below is Google’s demo video.

Below are two videos made by me in 1991.

Watching these videos it can be clearly seen that the data is accessed in the same way as shown in the above Google demo! This is the same “user-interface”

Both Google’s and my video’s, search the data from the hard drive at each key press. The data is different (web pages or records) but the algorithm is almost identical in accessing the data! The appropriate parts of the data are shown as a list of options and the most appropriate is highlighted (selected if Enter Key pressed). The user-interface is the same in that “what is typed and the displayed result”.

Google are not only using this format for their web search engines but are ‘giving away’ this technology for all different type of search applications. Search-as-you-type (SayT) application can be downloaded for any application from the link below.

http://code.google.com/p/search-as-you-type/

If a pharmacy software supplier ‘clicked’ and got the software for their application, it would directly compete with what I was selling! This implies that with Google’s current ‘acquisition’ of the patent, I would be ‘infringing’ on their patent even though I done it 20 years ago!!

I also realize that what I did 20 years ago is now being done in various forms such as in database access, word processors and other various applications under various names including search as you type, fast as you type, search as you go, search before you time and instant search. It was more than ‘merely’ searching records from the database. The algorithm for displaying the results is complex and custom made for each application.

Google’s ‘Instant’ patent can also be thought of as ‘prior art’ in that the “idea and ways to implement it” was thought of 20 years ago. Patents should be granted for products/processes not done before or not obvious to persons in the field. After knowing about my product which was done 20 odd years ago it doesn’t take a genius to adapt it for the web or to file a patent on it. On the Google patent my product isn’t even mentioned in the list of references!

Google is also using my copyright name of “Search-as-you-type” in their new Search-as-you-Type (SayT) applications as shown in the link below.

http://code.google.com/p/search-as-you-type/

I used the name “Search-as-you-type” to brand the technology I pioneered in 1989. This can be seen from the numerous newspaper and magazine articles published, some of which are shown on my blog below.

http://searchasyoutype.wordpress.com/about/

There are many articles including the one published in The Guardian Thursday August 6 1992. I presume Google must have been granted a Trademark of some sort to warrant them using the name search-as-you-type in the same way as I did.

My product Autodispens is a Pharmacy management system which is still being sold in the UK and it would seem absurd that I could not use that name for my own invention done in 1989.

To those it may matter, we are awaiting response from Google.

[image credit: seospin.net]

via wwwery.com