A new get rich quick scheme?

[thermodynamic]

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5063444.html

Eolas Technologies, a University of California spin-off with one employee, no products, a handful of patents and 100 investors, on Monday prevailed in its $521 million patent-infringement suit against Microsoft.

I swear, America is so fucked up thanks to its national pastime of putting greed and "the bottom line" above everything else.

Talk about frivolous lawsuits, too.

I know of another lawsuit where small companies are being targeted because they use pics to show goods that can be bought. I think the site was called www.youmightbenext.com or something similar... the smaller sites are being targeted first because they don't have the lawyers to fight what is a frivolous waste of time that just about anybody could have thought of. :eyes:

What next, somebody will put a patent on shouting as a cheap form of communication?!!

[markbark]

1. You forget one thing...

The fact that Microsoft, who VIGOROUSLY defends any and all of THEIR intellectual property rights, has been convicted of stealing another person's IP.

..... and I have a picture in my head of Bill Gates saying "$521 mil? (turning to adnim assistant) Hey Betty, can you open up petty cash for me?"

--MAB

[thermodynamic]

2. Except I don't agree with the concept or the system at all

I know MS goes after everyone they can and all they do is buy other peoples' property and do a hack job of shoving it into Windows and then turn around saying it's so "tightly integrated" that trying to remove it would break the OS.

More MS sloppiness, the fact they're #1 proves we're all stuck in the evil parallel universe.

[RobertSeattle]

3. Hmmmm...

I'm going to patent "Bullshit". I could bankrupt the entire Right Wing of the Republican Party!!!

[Drifter]

4. Nope ... this is quite common

someone, like this guy goes around (with investors in his pockets), and they buy up seemingly useless patents. Then they search the market for products that either do or or appear to violate the patents. They sue the companies, and most of the time the company settles with a nominal amount (much less than the threatened lawsuit). Just enough to keep them going.

Usually the lawsuit comes as the product is in final development, so as to force the company to settle as cheaply as possible.

Anyone who works with 1394 (FireWire, iLink) knows that there is a company going around suing everyone who has a 1394 product. Seems that they own a patent for what is described as a generic peer to peer network. I have read most of it, and you need a pretty wild imagination to conclude that 1394 is infringing on this patent. Doesn't matter, this company is suing everyone, and getting 50 - 60 K per pop.

With the popularity of 1394, you can see that this is big business.

I am a 1394 developers for Kodak. They came after us, we paid them off, they went away.

Cheers
Drifter