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Kugel
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 Message 41 of 97
22 September 2011 at 3:05am | IP Logged 
I'm amazed that even the use of students could be a component of the MT patent. The pause button component is just silly.
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newyorkeric
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 Message 42 of 97
22 September 2011 at 3:09am | IP Logged 
Without the students wouldn't you just have a guy talking to himself for 8 hours? They're crucial.
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Kugel
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 Message 43 of 97
22 September 2011 at 8:15am | IP Logged 
Paul Noble doesn't have the students. It's just him and a native speaker. It would be funny if he had a patent that had something do with not having any students in the course.
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newyorkeric
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 Message 44 of 97
22 September 2011 at 8:23am | IP Logged 
Kugel wrote:
Paul Noble doesn't have the students. It's just him and a native speaker. It would be funny if he had a patent that had something do with not having any students in the course.


I presume it's because of MT's patent.

Edited by newyorkeric on 22 September 2011 at 8:23am
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Cainntear
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 Message 45 of 97
22 September 2011 at 10:15am | IP Logged 
Kugel wrote:
I'm amazed that even the use of students could be a component of the MT patent. The pause button component is just silly.

I sincerely doubt the patent claims on the students would be upheld in the UK -- UK patents only protect "technical steps", whereas the students would be more like a "business method" (patentable in the US but not anywhere else, AFAIK).

The pause button may seem silly, but they have a pretty solid case for it. Patents are tested for "non-obviousness". The criterion is basically: would other people working in your field think of this. But tapes have come and gone and we've been using CDs for ages. We've had pause buttons for half a century, but everybody else is still using preprogrammed pauses.

So it passes the non-obvious test, and would likely be upheld if challenged.

Unless someone can find "prior art" -- a language learning tape released before MT that asks the student to use the pause button.
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Jeffers
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 Message 46 of 97
22 September 2011 at 12:52pm | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
Kugel wrote:
I'm amazed that even the use of students could be a component of the MT patent. The pause button component is just silly.

I sincerely doubt the patent claims on the students would be upheld in the UK -- UK patents only protect "technical steps", whereas the students would be more like a "business method" (patentable in the US but not anywhere else, AFAIK).

The pause button may seem silly, but they have a pretty solid case for it. Patents are tested for "non-obviousness". The criterion is basically: would other people working in your field think of this. But tapes have come and gone and we've been using CDs for ages. We've had pause buttons for half a century, but everybody else is still using preprogrammed pauses.

So it passes the non-obvious test, and would likely be upheld if challenged.

Unless someone can find "prior art" -- a language learning tape released before MT that asks the student to use the pause button.


I'm pretty sure Teach Yourself CD's tell students to use the pause button if necessary.
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t123
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 Message 47 of 97
22 September 2011 at 1:36pm | IP Logged 
Here's the patent in question: http://www.google.com/patents?vid=6565358
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montmorency
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 Message 48 of 97
22 September 2011 at 3:24pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
Kugel wrote:
I'm amazed that even the use of students could be a component of the MT patent. The pause button component is just silly.

I sincerely doubt the patent claims on the students would be upheld in the UK -- UK patents only protect "technical steps", whereas the students would be more like a "business method" (patentable in the US but not anywhere else, AFAIK).

The pause button may seem silly, but they have a pretty solid case for it. Patents are tested for "non-obviousness". The criterion is basically: would other people working in your field think of this. But tapes have come and gone and we've been using CDs for ages. We've had pause buttons for half a century, but everybody else is still using preprogrammed pauses.

So it passes the non-obvious test, and would likely be upheld if challenged.

Unless someone can find "prior art" -- a language learning tape released before MT that asks the student to use the pause button.


I'm pretty sure Teach Yourself CD's tell students to use the pause button if necessary.



I just looked at my TYS Norwegian CD/book combo: The book doesn't actually say a great deal about the CDs, other than to listen carefully, and it indicates which part of the text are included on the CD. However, the beginning of CD1 says to "pause and replay whenever you need to".

That's really to try to get your pronunciation right. They are not really using listen and pause in the same way that MT audio courses do, as I remember them. I don't really see how the use of pause in itself could be patentable, but the specific way it is used might be.




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