Facebook Hits Back Hard On Yahoo Patent Claims, Countersues Over Its Own Patents: Nuclear War Begins
from the what-a-waste dept
It's not surprising, after Yahoo sued Facebook and Facebook stocked up on a bunch more patents, that Facebook would respond with guns blazing at Yahoo for the lawsuit. As we've been arguing for the better part of a decade, in many cases, patents are basically just nuclear stockpiling, where companies get a ton of patents to hopefully ward off strikes from competitors. But every so often, nuclear war breaks out. It seems like that's the case here.Facebook hasn't just responded to Yahoo's claims by insisting that they're totally and completely bogus, it's also countersuing over a bunch of its own patents. Most of Facebook's response to Yahoo's claims are basically that it "denies the allegations" made by Yahoo. Sometimes, however, it takes some potshots.
Facebook admits that messaging and privacy are offered as options on certain websites. Facebook denies that “[w]ithout Yahoo!’s achievements, websites such as Facebook would not enjoy repeat visitors or substantial advertising revenue.” Facebook further denies that the functions identified in this paragraph of the Complaint involved any innovation by Yahoo!.For defenses, it basically brings out every possible argument. It says it didn't infringe. It says the patents are invalid. Those are pretty typical. However, Facebook also points out that Yahoo sat on these patents for ages and did nothing with them, so it argues that the doctrine of laches bars the claims (basically saying you can't wait forever before suing) and similarly that any damages would be limited by the amount of time that Yahoo sat on these patents and did nothing. They're also using Section 287 of the patent law to argue that Yahoo's failure to "mark" their inventions as patented severely limits or bars any damages. Basically, every possible defense shows up.
And then come the counterclaims on 10 specific patents, listed here:
- Patent 7,827,208: Generating a feed of stories personalized for members of a social network
- Patent 7,945,653: Tagging digital media
- Patent 6,288,717: Headline posting algorithm
- Patent 6,216,133: Method for enabling a user to fetch a specific information item from a set of information items, and a system for carrying out such a method
- Patent 6,411,949: Customizing database information for presentation with media selections
- Patent 6,236,978: System and method for dynamic profiling of users in one-to-one applications
- Patent 7,603,331: System and method for dynamic profiling of users in one-to-one applications and for validating user rules.
- Patent 8,103,611: Architectures, systems, apparatus, methods, and computer-readable medium for providing recommendations to users and applications using multidimensional data
- Patent 8,005,896: System for controlled distribution of user profiles over a network
- Patent 8,150,913: System for controlled distribution of user profiles over a network
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Filed Under: counterclaim, patent war, stockpiling
Companies: facebook, yahoo
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Preferably
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And the money goes to...
Everybody else loses.
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Re: And the money goes to...
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*takes another bong hit*
And someday, every home in America will have Color TV and men will walk on the moon.
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Wouldn't it be nice if...
Sweet dreams are made of these ...
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North Korea wipo tech transfer
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/03/exclusive-cash-for-computers-is-un-busting-its-own-s anctions-in-north-korea/#comment
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You are linking to the enemy.
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Re: You are linking to the enemy.
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Lesson from the Cold War...
Same thing now... only it's the lawyers who gain from mutually assured destruction.
I'm fairly certain that the signers of the Constitution would personally line up the writers of every piece of Copyright and Patent legislation and introduce them to the 2nd amendment.
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Has no one at the patent office heard of things like prior art, originality and all that good stuff that's supposed to apply to a patent, including things like it can't be obvious?
NEWS FLASH
Yahoo and Facebook will both apply for patent covering the ability to keep time across a network that will take into account the rotation of planet Earth and additionally claim a patent on the forces of gravitation, strong and weak nuclear forces et al, just to make darned sure they've covered everything! ;-)
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Anyway! The patent bunfight may be a billion dollar enterprise, but it also seems to me that it's where the tragedy of the commons meets the cash-on-the-table principle. I think, for our ongoing society to have any chance of anything worthwhile, it's these kinds of overlaps that would need to be addressed. There's a universe of difference between doing something because it represents robust opportunity and lucidly useful role, and another just because you can legally get away hitting someone in the face with shovels until they are forced to give you all of their money.
My grandmother certainly wouldn't approve, sheesh.
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http://www.seobythesea.com/2010/01/facebook-patent-filings/
They are laughable. The majority of them are nothing but a form on a computer that has some javascript tied to it and then they give it a fancy name saying they did something new with it. Take a look at them, it totally proves that the patent office has no clue and all they want are the exorbitant fees.
Patents and Copyright are simply a Government License to Litigate.
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I think I will move my sites and domains to European hosts.
Or there is a patent for "moving sites and domains"?
Enjoy destroing yourself. bye
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fights
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Why
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