A New York judge has nailed a 2011 patent on giving people money: "Even the addition of an element of computer use is insufficient to render it valid"
The ruling came down in a case that was brought by Kickstarter, the Brooklyn-based crowdfunding startup. But the patent wasn't Kickstarter's: instead, it belonged to a 2000-era startup called ArtistShare, which operates on a similar model that lets fans fund their favorite artists in exchange for perks.
ArtistShare had been trying to get Kickstarter to license its patent, which describes what we now know as "rewards-based crowdfunding." It's basically a website that lets fans donate money to an artist in exchange for an "entitlement" (also known as a perk, or reward).
