Jamie Plummer points me to this story suggesting that Libertarian vice presidential candidate Wayne Allen Root is a patent troll. The patent looks like your typical software patent:
A method and apparatus for facilitating electronic commerce between suppliers of predictions and consumers of predictions. Suppliers provide their predictions on the outcomes of future events in one or more categories, and each supplier’s accuracy is tracked. Consumers interested in obtaining predictions for one of more of those categories are allowed to selectively choose which suppliers’ predictions they wish to view. The suppliers are compensated based on the number of consumers who view their predictions. In one embodiment, the consumers pay for the predictions that they view while the suppliers are paid a portion of the revenue obtained from the consumers. In another embodiment the consumers are not charged and all revenue is derived from advertisers. The system in accordance with the present invention includes a controller which automatically credits each supplier’s account, aggregates earnings for that supplier, and automatically sends an electronic pay order to the Federal Reserve’s automated clearinghouse to thereby facilitate payment.
I was already unenthusiastic about the Barr-Root ticket. This is another reason to be skeptical.
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