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Written by Ron Rovtar, Managing Editor, the Stock Asylum
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
 A letter in Paul Morris' daily mail was not the kind of missive any small business person looks forward to.
Printed on stationery of a well respected law firm, the letter informed Morris that his small stock photography company is using patented technology "for distributing over a computer network such as the internet, digital products such as digitized photographs that have been made avaialble by various providers such as photographers."
In other words, a company named Digital Patent, LLC, was claiming it had patented the basic computerized workflow of a modern stock photography distributor. The letter pointed Morris to a legitimate United States patent issued on Sept. 28, 2004 to Eiman M. Boesjes, of Eugene, OR.
Morris was urged to sign a license that would commit him to paying Digital Patent a "discounted royalty rate of 0.5 percent of gross revenue and a minimum of $500 a month." According to the letter, the offer was good for 60 days, after which the royalty rate would increase to 1.5 percent with a minimum monthly payment of $1,500.
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