I just caught myself thinking: "I hope they got a software patent on this, they deserve it." But I usually hate software patents unequivocally. So, yet again, a real-world use case reminds me that nothing is so black and white.
* OCR, to identify the text * Removing the background of the text, filling it with surrounding colors * Translating words * Placing new words on the same area, using the same rectangle
It's very, very clever, but it's not something that should be controlled by one person or company. Should any combination of existing techniques will also be patentable? Where do we draw the line?
They were the first and they'll have a head start and make a lot of money. Now, be exclusive? I don't think so.
Patents are no defense against patent trolls, because (by definition) the patent trolls don't actually produce anything. There is no defense against patent trolls, except lobbying to narrow the scope and duration of technology patents.