Encyclopaedia Britannica's New Business Model: Sue For Patent Infringement

from the how-educational dept

Thu, May 31st 2007 10:25am — Mike Masnick

Just as many are starting to question Encyclopaedia Britannica's ability to survive in the Wikipedia world, it appears that the company has come up with a new business model: suing completely unrelated businesses for patent infringement. Apparently, the company is suing navigation device makers TomTom and Magellan for infringing on a bunch of patents having to do with a computerized map system. A quick stroll through the patent files shows a number of such patents, with this one being a recent one. If you're in the business of providing mapping and navigation systems, this seems like a fairly obvious progression of the art, rather than something that deserves patent protection -- but apparently the lawyers at Britannica don't agree. Yet another example of companies whose traditional lines of business are being challenged relying on patents not to further innovation, but to hold it back.

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24 Comments

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Ajax 4Hire, 31 May 2007 @ 10:36am

Innovation continues to slowly grind
to a halt.

The way companies flood the US Patent office (USPO), it is no wonder that when a company begins to falter, it pulls out it patent portfolio and starts to troll.

Remember one definition of Troll:
Creature that lives under a Bridge and extorts payment for passage.

Company that lives off of extortion payments for patents.
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Thomason, 31 May 2007 @ 10:46am

Who you like better.
I read a lot of what's posted here as being based on who or what someone likes better than someone or something else. That is the depth of those analyses.
On that basis, I like Brittanica better than TomTom or Magellan, so they fairly should win damages, without regard to originality or novelty.
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Starky, 31 May 2007 @ 10:53am

Dates
The filing date for this patent is Jun 13, 2005
I'm pretty certain that what they are describing in the patent was around before that.
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ScaredOfTheMan, 31 May 2007 @ 10:55am

Irrelevant company trying to stay relevant
What else have they got left? I mean seriously who needs/buys from them and their captive knowledge anyway? Wikipedia, encarta and the internet in general decimated their value in short order.

So now like any good corporation they are trying to "enhance shareholder value" so they start grasping at anything that makes them money.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2007 @ 10:58am

Screw it, if it gets too crazy I'm just going to move to a country where common sense has not been beat to death.
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Anononononon, 31 May 2007 @ 11:05am

Seriously, Mike.
Stop.
Seriously.
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dlb, 31 May 2007 @ 11:07am

Prior Art
Amazing. They have described in general terms most mapping software, listed that description in the form of claims, and got a patent on it. This degrades the value of my patents. My innovative effort seems pointless. I quit.
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bonbon, 31 May 2007 @ 11:16am

31 days in May.
22 Posts from Mike about patents.

zzzzzzz......

We get it.
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Mike, 31 May 2007 @ 11:34am

BONBON!!!
You moron. Go read somewhere else if you don't care for patent articles then!!
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bonbon, 31 May 2007 @ 11:57am

Re: BONBON!!!
Then where would I find such intellectually stimulating comments like yours?
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Vincent Clement, 31 May 2007 @ 12:17pm

Wayne Amsbury at the USPTO needs to be fired.
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Big Al, 31 May 2007 @ 1:09pm

To Anonymous Coward
Please name for me the country you describe. France? Mexico? I know, China! Right?
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2007 @ 1:17pm

Don't stop
Obviously Mike needs to keep writing about patents until something is done. Simply acknowledging that there is a problem and moving on is not the answer. Keep it up man! Most people will not act to change unless they are forced to, or are annoyed.
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bonbon, 31 May 2007 @ 1:53pm

Re: Don't stop
Yes, Mike's blog in some obscure Techie website is going to change the face of patents in the United States and maybe even abroad.

Boy, it must be nice to live on Planet Insane.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2007 @ 2:04pm

Re: To Anonymous Coward
Hell yeah, China sounds great. They don't beat common sense to death, just the people!
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angry dude, 31 May 2007 @ 5:26pm

Mike's patent bashing
Hey, dudes, Mike is an honest dude on payroll.

He is just sucking up to his corporate masters:

http://www.patentfairness.org/
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vapiddreamer, 31 May 2007 @ 6:20pm

Re: Re: BONBON!!!
If you don't want to read about patents you don't need to read elsewhere, but why would you continue even clicking on posts that clearly state they are about patents ?!?!?!?! oh, you r just one of those whiny b@$*hs that has nothing better to do that complain about everything, even those things they could easily avoid. Yeah, cause if you avoided them what would you have to whine about. Shut the hell up you snot nosed little freak.
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vapiddreamer, 31 May 2007 @ 6:23pm

Re: Re: Don't stop
Uh, yeah, the dissemination of information that is relevant to peoples lives never changes anything. Your totally right. How could we all have been so mistaken. With your brains I'm surprised you haven't fallen over dead cause you forgot to breath.
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Avatar28, 31 May 2007 @ 9:05pm

Google next?
The description in the patent seems to describe Google Maps and really most every other mapping site on the net to a planet. Yeah, if they can't come up with mounds of prior art I will be truly shocked.
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Vincent Clement (profile), 31 May 2007 @ 9:48pm

Re: Google next?
That patent cites some 40 or 50 other patents and is nothing more than broadly defined systems or methods tied together by several flowcharts. I can't believe that it took 14 people to 'invent' and 'innovate' this baby. I remember drawing flowcharts in some of my computer science courses back in the 80s.

This strategy only reveals how bad things are at Britannica and how desperate they are to stay alive. It's been nice knowing you Encyclopaedia Britannica, but your time to shut down has come. Thanks for all the good times.
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mike allen, 1 Jun 2007 @ 2:17am

change
It use to be the case that if a industries in old technology they did something else case in point Nokia who i think were in the rubber industry before mobile phones so why cant britanica move into say building satelites
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JustMe, 1 Jun 2007 @ 8:13am

To: All the bitchy kids
So go start your own tech site. Geeze.
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Phil, 3 Jun 2007 @ 8:23am

Using Britannica's Assets
When you sit back and think about the assets that Encyclopaedia Britannica has, it is amazing. They should create a huge website with all their content indexed and searchable and have advertising pop-up for search terms used.

They are sitting on a fortune if done right.
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Charles Michael Collins, 4 Jun 2007 @ 6:21am

PATENT HATERS
Go ahead. Bash and reduce patents. I filed two patents and got them attacked by a university professor for shock jock sport that said they were predated and were not. Very popular thing for COMMUNISTS to do (they want NO ONE to OWN ANYTHING, including patent rights). Wikipedia refuses to even credit names of patent holders of important patents and refuses to credit patent holders that provide working models of "first" important technologies like my first replicating nano device. The missing data "Mike" is leaving out is what is being censored by Wikipedia and the drug addicted music stealing Richard Stallman. Wikipedia is using HIS paradigm? This, another university elitist that never knew the meaning of earning an honest dime, slopping at the taxpayers feeding trough? I have 239 real innovations of valuable need to man kind ready to make a living with. IF MY FIRST TWO PATENTS ARE BUSTED SEE IF I EVER FILE ANOTHER ONE FOR YOU UNADULTERATED IDIOTS, THE SHOCK JOCK, DOPE ADDICT LOVING PUBLIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

F@CK PATENT HATING PIGS!@#$$%^&*())
F@CK WIKIPEDIA!@#$^%&*&
F@CK MERKLE AND FRIETAS!@#$%
F@CK SHOCK JOCKS IN ALL THIER STINKING PUTRID FORMS!
THIS IS LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD FOR THE IDIOTS
GO WATCH YOUR GANSTER RAP AND B> SPEARS BIMBO!@#$^&
YOU WON"T GET ANY MORE REAL ART OUT OF ME!@#$%&
PIGS.

re:
http://www.molecularassembler.com/KSRM/3.16.htm

And Cornell stole my replicator on all this and gave it away, lord high felons PIGS.
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