Patent Battles Continue Over Wireless Email
from the make-it-stop dept
While RIM is often portrayed as a victim for having to pay out $612.5 million in the patent infringement lawsuit filed by patent holding firm NTP, what gets less attention is that part of what kicked off NTP's lawsuit was the fact that RIM itself was going around suing pretty much everyone for patent infringement itself. And, of course, that kicked off all sorts of copycats, such as Visto -- a company that clearly learned the art of wielding patents against more successful companies from NTP. Visto and RIM ended up in quite the patent battle, with Visto even claiming that RIM should be shut down.But, in the end, rather than the other way around, it turned out that it was Visto that was found to be infringing on RIM's patents. At this point, though, hasn't anyone realized how ridiculous it is that there are so many companies claiming to hold patents on some aspect of "wireless email" that no one can enter the space without having a bunch of infringement lawsuits waiting for them? This is not what the patent system was designed for.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
This article infringes on my patent
I am intolerant of people who are intolerant.
I am offended by people who are easily offended.
Patent a business model that buys up patents and sues companies that have deep pockets and wussy CEOs; easily caving to my license agreements. I'll call the company Black Plague.
I'm off to register blackplague.com
TTFN
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Subtle Moose
Consider the moose for example. Those are sneaky buggers and masters of escape! The thing is, people "know" a moose can't get out of a locked cage, its got hooves afterall. So unless you are looking for an escaped moose you'll never notice it running down the street.
Okay, technically you'll notice it. I mean its a great big moose. With horns! Or antlers at any rate. The point is you won't believe thats what you saw running by so you'll shrug it off.
Anyways, the point is patents are mooses. Meeses. Soemthing. How's a judge supposed to denounce a moose?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]