Yet Another Of The FBI's Own Terrorist Plots... Involves A Group Of Senior Citizens

Oracle Sues To Stop Lodsys Patent Trolling

from the oh-irony dept

Wed, Jun 6th 2012 7:15am — Mike Masnick

Oracle apparently has no sense of irony when it comes to patents. The day after a judge issued a complete smackdown in Oracle's "big" patent and copyright lawsuit against Google, Oracle has suddenly decided that it doesn't like patent bullies. Well, as long as the bully isn't Oracle. It filed its own case against Lodsys -- the quite infamous patent troll that has been threatening and suing tons of companies for daring to do in-app payments. Apparently, Lodsys has targeted Oracle customers and the company has had enough. It's actually good to see more tech companies fight back against Lodsys, but it does seem a bit odd on the timing for Oracle, given its over-emphasis on the importance of not violating patents in the earlier case.

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Filed Under: apps, irony, patent troll
Companies: lodsys, oracle

19 Comments

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silverscarcat (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 7:17am

*Insert Mark Hamill's Joker laugh*
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That's funny!!
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Mega1987 (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 7:20am

Irony, eh?

You need more solid iron for that?
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- The eejit (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 9:06am
  
  Re:
  Oracle's irony meter is anaemic.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2012 @ 7:21am

Interesting
Maybe the smackdown was so powerful and effective that the company learned that patent trolling is bad? Maybe this is a sign that they realized their mistake and want to help make things right?
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- Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2012 @ 7:27am
  
  Re: Interesting
  "Maybe the smackdown was so powerful and effective that the company learned that patent trolling is bad? Maybe this is a sign that they realized their mistake and want to help make things right?"
  
  No... -this- is where Mark Hamill's laugh belongs.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2012 @ 7:55am
    
    Re: Re: Interesting
    I love his "Joker" laugh!
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    - The eejit (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 9:07am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Interesting
      No, that's his generic laugh (see also, Avatar: the Last Airbender. His laugh is really fucking creepy.
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mlang (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 8:04am

Oracle is right to pursue this, irrespective of its actions elsewhere. Or are people here saying that once a company has made a big fool of itself we don't want them to take action against trolls?

At least Oracle do develop.
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- Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2012 @ 8:52am
  
  Re:
  Don't think anybody is saying that they shouldn't take action against trolls. It is just the timing makes their change of position interesting.
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Sherman S LaGuen, 6 Jun 2012 @ 8:32am

I get a mental image of one ugly shark on a feeding frenzy being eaten by another ugly shark on a feeding frenzy ...
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2012 @ 8:49am

In this case, I think PJs quote from Groklaw is appropriate:

" See why I always tell you that to avoid whiplash, don't look at the parties in litigation and decide who you like, but anaylze the issues involved and plant your flag accordingly? Hence, here we are, on the same side of this issue, Groklaw and Oracle. Who'd-a thunk it last week?"

I think oracle are bastards for the java case, but awesome for this case.
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- Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2012 @ 10:28am
  
  Re:
  Bastard + awesome = Bawesome?
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  - Aaron, 6 Jun 2012 @ 10:24pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Asstard
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Rob (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 8:53am

This was all part of Oracle's master plan to get smacked down in court to have precedence in order to unleash fury against all other patent trolls.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Jun 2012 @ 9:46am

Smackdown
Personally I don't give a RA about Oracle.

But if more companies with deep pockets went after these Patent Trolls, we would soon be rid of them.

How about it Google? Microsoft? Apple?...Uh,never mind.

My bad.
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Ninja (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 10:00am

Me thinks they need to be introduced to the concept of irony.

In another news Righthaven sues Lodsys for daring to be a copyright troll without their consent.
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- Digitari, 6 Jun 2012 @ 10:55am
  
  Re:
  would not RightHaven also be able to sue Oracle, don't they also have the patent on "big fail"
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- The eejit (profile), 6 Jun 2012 @ 11:27am
  
  Re:
  There's not enough iron in the world to stop the Ironeers at Oracle. Which they licensed from Disney's Imagineers.
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patent litigation, 11 Jun 2012 @ 11:50am

out of hand
I think that (1) in general, patent owners should be free to enforce their IP in the face of infringement, but (2) the mobile app patent wars are a different animal entirely, and have gotten out of hand. Likely this is one of the (IMHO) rare cases in which overenforcement of IP (by NPEs against small developers) may well be hindering technological advancement.
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