Encyclopaedia Britannica Loses Patent Battle... Yet Again
from the keep-it-up dept
Last year, we wrote about the incredible story of how Encyclopaedia Britannica had ended up with an infamous patent (5,241,671) and was using it to claim ownership over basic GPS functionality. The patent had originally been granted to Compton's back in 1993, and was insanely broad. Compton's quickly told the world that pretty much any and all multimedia systems out there (such as CD-ROMs) violated the patent. The outcry was so great that the commissioner of the patent office initiated the re-exam of the patent himself, and eventually tossed out the whole thing. But, as things go, there was some back-and-forth, and eventually a few greatly narrowed claims were allowed. EB ended up with the patents as an investor in Compton's, and then not only got some other patents based on the 671 patent, but claimed that they could be asserted against GPS systems. And, just like that, rather than doing something useful, like figuring out how to compete with Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica started filing bogus patent infringement lawsuits.We wrote about it last November to note that a court had thrown out the entire 671 patent as invalid. While EB is appealing that ruling, it also pushed ahead with the lawsuits based on the other patents it had received that were built on the 671 patent. However, Slashdot alerts us that the same court that tossed out the 671 patent has now dumped these two patents as well. EB, of course is expected to appeal this as well.
This seems like a subject that could use a decent Wikipedia entry, doesn't it?
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
Filed Under: gps, multimedia, patents
Companies: encyclopeadia britannica
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Sorry, what were you saying? I was researching Barney The Dinosaur's attempt trying to collect royalties for using his theme song as it relates to torture.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
When you can 't compete
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: When you can 't compete
You'd think people would learn this after a while. Here in the USA we have two outfits which seem to have adopted this business model, the RIAA and its associated record companies, and the SCO Group, a two-bit software company which has been carrying on a nuisance lawsuit against four of its customers for six years now and refuses to quit. And neither seems to understand why its business is tanking.
You reap what you sow.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WAY TO GO ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA! A sound business model if I've ever heard one.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
stop the shilling!!!
Excuse me Mr. Masnick, but isn't inventing the technology useful? Without it there would be nothing for the others to commercialize, right?
See, even a child could figure that one out.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]