Bunch Of Companies Sued Over Encryption Patents

from the but-of-course dept

Another day, another story of a company no one's heard of who seems to produce nothing but patents, filing a lawsuit against a ton of companies in East Texas (of course). This one, sent in by the Bored SysAdmin, involves a company called The Pacid Group, suing Asus, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, LG, Gigabyte, GBT, MSI, Motorola, Research in Motion, Nikon, Microsoft, Nintendo, HTC and Palm, claiming that they all violate two of its patents (5,963,646 and 6,049,612) on encryption. While it's often difficult to find any information on the no name companies who sue big companies for patent infringement, at least The Pacid Group has a website, where it clearly shows the company's only products: patents.

As we've seen in other similar lawsuits, the company appears to think that pretty much every bit of modern technology violates its patents. According to the lawsuit, all of the following types of products may violate these patents: laptops, mobile phones, printers, routers, digital cameras, Blu-ray disk players, gaming devices, wireless adapters and portable media players. Now, sure, you could make the claim that all of these companies found these patents from a company no one had heard of, and decided to "copy" the idea into their product. Or, the fact that this basic idea appears in so many places might lead you to conclude that the idea was the natural progression of the technology and obvious to those skilled in the art, and thus not deserving of a patent. But that would make sense.
Hide this

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: encryption, patents
Companies: asus, fujitsu, gbt, gigabyte, htc, lg, microsoft, motorola, msi, nikon, nintendo, palm, rim, samsung, sony, sony ericsson


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    Richard (profile), 8 Apr 2010 @ 2:47am

    companies who big companies

    should be

    companies who sue big companies

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Richard (profile), 8 Apr 2010 @ 3:05am

    Reading the patents in question

    I can't believe that anyone would ever infringe on them. They are very specific - and admit that there are many prior patents covering very similar processes...
    The catch all nature of the lawsuit seems incredible given the very precise nature of the patents in question.

    Having said that it looks to me like DRM technologies may be in the firing line so....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2010 @ 4:04am

      Re: Reading the patents in question

      "Having said that it looks to me like DRM technologies may be in the firing line"

      I hope so. It'd be great if these corporations have their evil ways bite them in the ass.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael, 8 Apr 2010 @ 4:33am

    Third Patent

    I like the fact that they have posted their patents on their website. It's much easier to laugh at them.

    I have not read through all of them, but the third one "File Encryption Method and System" is within my realm of expertise.

    I was under the understanding that you could not "invent" by simply sticking two other "inventions" together? I can see how this would be violated by a lot of technology - since it is really how public/private key encryption works. I just don't get how anyone "skilled in the art" would not call this obvious.

    If the patent is really upheld, lots of companies are going to have to pay up on this one...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2010 @ 4:44am

    Which of these companies are actually located in east texas?

    Asus, Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, LG, Gigabyte, GBT, MSI, Motorola, Research in Motion, Nikon, Microsoft, Nintendo, HTC and Palm

    or Pacid Group

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    DevConcepts (profile), 8 Apr 2010 @ 4:58am

    Next up - The Available lawsuit

    The encryption chip manufactures will be taken to court because they made the chips available.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 8 Apr 2010 @ 6:18am

    software that becomes hardware

    bad

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Apr 2010 @ 6:27am

    because "many-to-few bit mapping" is not generic at all....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pixelation, 8 Apr 2010 @ 7:54am

    Percentage

    I'm curious if it's considered infringement if someone implements the technology in a patent but only say 60% and the other 40% is implemented differently? Does a patent give the rights holder complete "ownership" of each and every step or part?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Richard Corsale (profile), 8 Apr 2010 @ 9:11am

      Re: Percentage

      I think it gives them ownership over each claim exclusively, not all having to be violated to infringe. I could be wrong.. anyone?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    staff, 10 Apr 2010 @ 7:22pm

    Alexander Graham Bell

    "Another day, another story of a company no one's heard of who seems to produce nothing but patents... "

    Alexander Graham Bell produced a patent on teh telephone yet he did not personally commercialize the telephone. Ever hear of him?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    driss, 29 May 2010 @ 2:18pm

    demande emploi commercial

    Sir Madam
    I offer you my work on the subject of trade and investment and with that I have ideas and talents of the business to ask you to help me organize a business to the fact
    Waiting for the answer
    Thank you

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.