Search Results for: capstone

Minolta: Tales of a Forgotten Camera Maker

Today, most of the consumer-grade camera landscape is dominated by less than half a dozen brands. Canon, Sony, and Nikon take the lion’s share in terms of sales and public recognition, while almost all the gaps are filled by smaller companies like Fujifilm and Pentax.

Great Reads in Photography: May 16, 2021

Every Sunday, we bring together a collection of easy-reading articles from analytical to how-to to photo-features in no particular order that did not make our regular daily coverage. Enjoy!

Court Rules Against Photog Who Patented the Online Distribution of Sports Photos

Back in August 2014, we reported on the legal battle between photographer Peter Wolf and a company called Capstone. Wolf had received three patents on a method of distributing sports photos online. The problem was, the patents described common workflows that countless photographers use around the world.

The latest development today will have those photographers resting a bit easier: the courts have ruled that the patents are invalid because they aren't inventive enough and because they simply describe convention steps that many people use.

Photographer Files Vague Patent, Sues Others for Shooting and Selling Photos of Sporting Events

In the world of patents, some money, a lawyer and the carefully crafting a few hundred words can go a long way -- for better or worse.

One such example is the case of Peter Wolf, owner of Photocrazy, a company that takes photos of sporting events such as triathlons, then offers prints to the participants by matching their race number to an internalized, searchable database.

And although this concept has been around for quite some time in various forms, EFF reveals that Wolf managed to get three patents on this generalized idea and is now attempting to squash other, smaller operations that use a similar method.