RIM Pays Off Wi-LAN To Get Rid Of Another Patent Suit
from the losers-litigate dept
Wi-LAN is a Canadian company that did some early work in the wireless field, but was unable to actually make much of a business out of its work, so it took the loser's route: it started suing lots of companies for patent infringement. It's the same old story: winners innovate, losers litigate -- and litigate seems to be about all that Wi-LAN does these days. Recently, Wi-LAN targeted RIM, another Canadian company, who famously was pressured to cough up hundreds of millions in another patent battle to NTP a few years ago. These days, RIM seems to have learned an unfortunate lesson: it's easier to just pay up whoever sues you for patent infringement, no matter how legit (or not) their claim is.So, it should come as no surprise that RIM has agreed to pay off Wi-LAN to make the lawsuit go away. No details were released, but given that Wi-LAN put out a separate press release saying that its "earnings" (a misnomer if there ever were one) for the quarter should be between $24.5 million and $25.5 million from the previous guidance of $15 million to $20 million you can take a guess how much this cost RIM. Definitely cheaper than a lawsuit, though this will only encourage two bad results: Wi-LAN will keep suing companies that actually do something, and more companies with questionable patents on wireless technologies will line up to get some cash from RIM. This isn't encouraging innovation. It's encouraging extortion.
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Pedantry!
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I thought
I thought that was the purpose of patents these days, no?
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Not sure I get the "losers"
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Re: Not sure I get the "losers"
Yeah, right, except for inventing and developing all the underlying technology which was immediately stolen by those large corporations with resources to mass-manufacture
Not doing much of anything indeed
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Re: Not sure I get the "losers"
Wi-LAN lost in the marketplace. It was unable to build a product that market wanted.
And in suing the successful companies that actually did bring products to the market, money is moved from actually benefiting society to rewarding the company that couldn't. That's inefficient, bad for the market and bad for the economy.
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Re: Re: Not sure I get the "losers"
another horseshit from Mikey, a self-proclaimed economics guru
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Re: Re: Re: Not sure I get the "losers"
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Re: Re: Not sure I get the
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Re: Re: Re: Not sure I get the
Losers because of the time, effort and lack of focus required for their "business model" to eek out a few mere millions.
Businesses are expensive to operate. It would be quite interesting to see how much money these jokers burned through prior to this court ruling. It would be interesting to know just how much ROI their investors got by this "winning business strategy".
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stop the shilling!!!
Some people never grow up. You were a punk then. You’re a punk now.
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Re: stop the shilling!!!
When someone copies your idea...you STILL HAVE the idea.
Now, if you cannot COMPETE in the marketplace having had the upper hand on initial market push of your idea, then why should others be held back by your inabilities.
See, this is the problem with this type of patent case. The patent holder only had HALF of the idea necessary to become successful. They failed because they couldn't come up with the other half (the innovation part). And I'm being very generous by saying a patented idea is half...innovation is usually where the real hard work is.
The case isn't about "stolen" anything. It is about being someone being first to the lunch counter and not letting anyone else eat until they figure out what it is they want off the menu...and they can't read.
In addition, you offer threats of physical violence and then claim that people with reasoned points of view are "punks" and "need to grow up"?
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Re: Re: stop the shilling!!!
Grow up, little dude
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RIM is a SLOW Learner
RIM is a serial infringer, period. You can bet that they settled this case because they were caught once again with their sticky fingers in other's patent cookie jar.
I think that RIM is a school yard bully who will eventually do as Microsoft did, pick the wrong fight and really get their tail whipped in the same manner as Microsoft.
Ronald J. Riley,
Speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.patentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 9 pm EST.
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