Yahoo Going Patent Troll: Threatens Facebook Over Patent Infringement
from the when-you're-young dept
We've said it a bunch of times here in the past when describing the life cycles of tech companies: when you're young, you innovate. When you're old, you litigate. We've seen it time and time again. The big tech companies that are no longer innovating and are far removed from their former position as major players in the market, make one last grasp at relevance by breaking out their patent portfolio and beginning to sue. The latest to take this death knell step appears to be Yahoo, which is threatening to sue Facebook for patent infringement. This may be a sad end to the legacy of Yahoo -- a once innovative company that has made pretty much all the wrong moves over the last half-decade or so, that is now left to snipe at those more innovative and nimble.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: innovation, litigation, patents
Companies: facebook, yahoo
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
First you lost out to Google with the search engines...
Then you killed Geocities...
Now this?
...
I'm all nostalgic for Geocities now.
I'm sad. :(
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Geocities
http://wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Freaky...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Geocities
I will add this link to my list of nostalgic indulgences (e.g., Big Macs, Zingers, DOS commands, frames).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Geocities
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Geocities
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Then use Yahoo.jp, Geocities are still very much in use over there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
See MySpace
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
blame patents, not yahoo
Blame patents, not Yahoo.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: blame patents, not yahoo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: blame patents, not yahoo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: blame patents, not yahoo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: blame patents, not yahoo
Huh? I use guns lawfully. A lot of people do the same. Ever been to a rifle range or a shooting range? Just because someone shoots a gun doesn't necessarily mean that they have committed a crime. If they shoot at someone, yes, but if they shoot down range at harmless pieces of paper, nope...not usually.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: blame patents, not yahoo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: blame patents, not yahoo
Yup. I've got an itchy trigger finger when it comes to the 2nd amendment. Re-reading what you said, I misunderstood.
Though it is kinda interesting that some states are doing everything in their power to limit the 2nd amendment even though, as you say (and I agree,) you can't keep guns away from criminals.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: blame patents, not yahoo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
experiment
Am I leaving anything out? Political contributions? HQ building size? Stock price?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/yahoo-threatens-facebook-with-patent-war/9588?t ag=mantle_skin;content
But then the fanboy accusation gets thrown around on ZDnet in much the same way as gay gets thrown around in an elementary school playground and apparently by people at or about the same stage of development.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As someone who despises both Yahoo and Facebook..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Patents Patents and more Patents
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
All it would take is a maybe 2-3 companies to bottom out like that and see how hesitant the rest get to unzipper those patent portfolios and wave them around.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
WHO'S THE REAL TROLLS???
You're F*&KING HYPOCRITES! YOU ARE THE TROLLS!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: WHO'S THE REAL TROLLS???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: WHO'S THE REAL TROLLS???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: WHO'S THE REAL TROLLS???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: WHO'S THE REAL TROLLS???
"The big tech companies that are no longer innovating and are far removed from their former position as major players in the market, make one last grasp at relevance by breaking out their patent portfolio and beginning to sue."
This statement alone calls out numerous companies that have taken this same path.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Here's to hoping
[ link to this | view in chronology ]