
For Pianist, Software Is Replacing Sonatas - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/arts/music/21taub.html
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mcav
_> The company, MuseAmi, now has half a dozen software engineers and about as
many patents applied for._

I know it's cliché to bash patents, but as a musician and someone who often
brainstorms opportunities for music software, this is frustrating. I haven't
tried to look for these particular patents, but I'd almost bet that they
aren't that innovative. This whole business of "navigating the patent
landscape" just sucks the ambition out of new ideas whenever they come up.

Yeah, patents shouldn't stop you from doing it, etc, but that just postpones
you having to deal with the problem if you become successful.

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sprout
Oh, they sound innovative, they just don't sound patent-worthy. At the core of
his idea he's just plugging some OCR algorithms into a midi player, but the
way he's described it I wouldn't be surprised if some of those patents
essentially amount to a patent on a specific yet unremarkable implementation
of OCR with a midi player attached.

The implementation may be innovative, but not patent worthy since it's a
fairly straightforward application of existing tools.

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skybrian
"Just plugging some OCR algorithms into a midi player" is severely downplaying
a difficult task. OCR algorithms designed for text aren't likely to be
immediately applicable to musical notation, which is pretty complicated, not
all that standardized, and often ambiguous. This is the sort of area where
deep knowledge really pays off - it's not just throwing together a website.

Assuming any software can be patented, I don't doubt there are some algorithms
to be discovered in this area that qualify. Hopefully the patents aren't so
broad that others can't work around them.

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gravitymonkey
Robert Taub is a phenomenal pianist. The app is quite cool and slickly done as
well. I can see the complains, esp. here, about the essence of any new (or not
new) IP, but Taub got my $5 bucks back in the day to hear him play, and he got
my $7.99 today.

