

Patenting statistical techniques? Can you say WTF? - chewxy
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/jobs/an-actuary-proves-patents-arent-only-for-engineers.html?_r=2

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pjscott
The patent in question:

[http://www.google.com/patents?id=avgEAgAAEBAJ&printsec=f...](http://www.google.com/patents?id=avgEAgAAEBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=VADIVELOO&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NvC1T8qHBemyiQLM6MnwBg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA)

And yes, it does look like he just took fairly common statistical methods,
added a bunch of awkwardly-worded stuff about how it's _financial data_ , and
you're storing it in _a computer memory_ , so that makes it special. Or my
interpretation could be off; it's not exactly a miracle of clear writing.

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guan
It looks like there’s a second patent with the same title:

[http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...](http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8131571.PN.&OS=PN/8131571&RS=PN/8131571)

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chewxy
It's a pretty common statistical technique - random sampling, and he wants to
patent it. WTF??

Anyone thinks this is madness?

~~~
halad
Agreed, the article itself reads almost like a piece of satire.

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camkego
Can I say jackass here?

