Jay Walker Continues Quest To Sue The Internet Into Oblivion With Patents

from the tarnished-legacy dept

Jay Walker created Priceline. That was a good idea, and he showed that he could execute on that. But since then, apparently the only thing he's wanted to execute on is destroying his legacy by becoming a full on patent troll, and suing as many big companies as possible. Last year, we noted that Walker claimed he had effectively invented "friending" (Patent: 5,884,27 for "establishing and maintaining user-controlled anonymous communications.") and sued Facebook. That same article talked about him suing the Powerball lottery (Patent: 7,740,537 on "applying lottery multipliers").

Earlier this year, he apparently decided to accelerate that campaign, by suing basically every successful internet company. All in all, he sued 100 different companies, including Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Facebook (again), WalMart, GroupOn, Apple and Google.

But why stop there? On October 18th, Walker got a new patent: 8,041,711, for a "Method and system for providing a link in an electronic file being presented to a user," and before the day was over, he had sued Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo and Vibrant Media over that patent. He got the lawsuits in so fast that the USPTO website apparently hadn't even listed his new patent at the time (it has now).

With those last lawsuits, Walker claimed that the various companies wouldn't have existed without his inventions ("A number of great companies can trace their genesis to technology that was first developed at Walker Digital in the mid-to-late 1990s.") Once again, he doesn't seem to shy away from ridiculous hyperbole, claiming that his invention is why those companies have targeted advertising:

Those "revolutionary technologies … were a direct result of investments made by Walker Digital," according to the complaints.

Let's put this plainly: that's bullshit. Nothing that any of those companies did was a result of any investment by Walker Digital. Walker is relying on a popular myth, that patent infringement lawsuits are about someone "copying" an idea from someone else. The reality (and studies have shown this repeatedly) is that most patent infringement lawsuits have nothing to do with one company copying someone else or copying a patent. In this case, it's pretty damn clear that these companies most certainly did not build their own targeted advertisement program because of anything that Walker did. Claiming so is flat out laughable.

Filed Under: jay walker, patents, targeted advertising
Companies: amazon, google, microsoft, vibrant media, walker digital, yahoo

Jay Walker Sues Nearly Every Successful Internet Company, Claiming They're All Built Off His Patents

from the exhibit-number-one-in-why-business-method-patents-are-lame dept

Last fall, we noted that Priceline founder Jay Walker had apparently gone full on patent troll, with a series of lawsuits against Facebook (for "friending" -- violating patent #5,884,272) and the Powerball Lottery (for having lottery "multipliers" in violation of patent #7,740,537).

Of course, Walker has a very long history of being more interested in patents and locking up ideas than actually engaging in innovation. Yes, he actually did some innovating with Priceline, but all the way back in 1999 he was talking about how excited he was about the ability to patent business methods, which had really only recently been thought of as patentable. He certainly took to it quickly, patenting all sorts of business ideas.

Apparently those lawsuits last year were just the warm up act. Joe Mullin alerts us to the news that Walker has teamed up with the rather infamous patent troll Erich Spangenberg, whose motto is sue first, ask questions later in order to sue over 100 different companies for violating various patents he holds. Among the companies sued are Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Facebook (again!), WalMart, Groupon, Apple, Sony and Google.

Even better, he's put out a press release that plays up how various fawning press reports have lavished praise on Walker, and then suggests that pretty much any successful internet company wouldn't exist without Walker's brilliant inventions:

"A number of great companies can trace their genesis to technology that was first developed at Walker Digital in the mid-to-late 1990s. We are proud of our inventions and the number of innovative businesses and activities founded on these inventions. These businesses have not only changed the way people around the world live, work, travel and interact socially and commercially, but also have given rise to numerous American jobs."

The press release also plays up the claim that they prefer not to sue (uh... yeah...) and that they would have liked it better if these companies had just agreed to give them money in the first place. That's pretty amusing coming from a company that has teamed up with Spangenberg who has flat out said he prefers to sue first. If you don't want to sue, you don't work with someone like Spangenberg.

Mullin has a summary of a few of the new lawsuits:

• A lawsuit [PDF] against Citigroup, Discover, Wells Fargo, and two payment-services companies, T-Chek Systems and Orbiscom, saying the companies infringe two patents on a "Method And Device For Generating A Single-Use Financial Account Number."
• A lawsuit [PDF] against daily deal sites, including Groupon, Livingsocial (and parent company Amazon), and smaller sites like BuyWithMe, Tippr.com, jasmere.com, and juiceinthecity.com. Those sites are alleged to infringe four Walker patents, including one issued in 2001 called "Systems and Methods Wherein A Buyer Purchases A Product At A First Price And Acquires The Product From A Merchant That Offers The Product For Sale At A Second Price." For example, the lawsuit says BuyWithMe is in trouble because it "offers buyers products and services from retailers at discounted prices and arranges for users to take possession of the goods or services at the retailers' locations." Hmm… that was invented in 2001.
• A lawsuit [PDF] against online game operators, including—(deep breath)--Activision, Atari, Cartoon Interactive Group, Disney Interactive, Electronic Arts, ESPN Internet Ventures, Microsoft, Miniclip America, MLB Advanced Media, Onlive, Popcap Games, Sony Corp., Turbine, Turner Digital Basketball Services, Valve Corp., Walt Disney, Yahoo, and Zynga. The companies are accused of violating two patents, including this one, which "allows video and computer game enthusiasts to submit their game outcomes to a central online repository so that they can be compared to the results of other players."
• A lawsuit [PDF] over mapping technology, filed against Apple, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, Telenav, Mio Technology, TomTom, and others.

Isn't the patent system great? It allows people to take general ideas that lots of people have, give you a monopoly on them for doing nothing... and then sue all the companies who were successful actually implementing them... all the while letting you suggest that those companies unfairly "took" your idea.

Filed Under: jay walker, patents

Priceline Founder Jay Walker Becoming Full On Patent Troll: Sues Facebook For Friending And The Powerball Lottery For Lotteries

from the this-is-not-innovation dept

All the way back in 1999, we were already pointing out how Priceline's Jay Walker was a lot more focused on locking up various ideas via patents than actually building sustainable businesses. Even at the time, "Priceline" was an aggressive patent defender and was really an offshoot of Walker Digital, the firm he set up to hoard patents and to extract money out of actual innovators. Over the years, we've noted the various ridiculous patents he's received. It's also worth noting that Priceline pretty near tanked under his leadership -- once again highlighting the vast difference between idea and execution.

Joe Mullin has an article highlighting how Walker is now suing Facebook for violating a patent he got back in 1999 (5,884,27) for "establishing and maintaining user-controlled anonymous communications." According to Walker, the very basic "friending" feature on Facebook violates this patent. That claim, alone, pretty much highlights what's wrong with the patent system. The process of setting up such a system is not at all complicated, and thousands of programmers could come up with a similar system in a very short period of time. Note that Walker never actually did anything here (or, if he did, it's pretty much lost to history). Yet Facebook actually implements such a feature well, and suddenly it needs to pay up? How does that make any sense at all?

Mullin's report also highlights that Walker has been getting more aggressive in his patent lawsuits lately -- even going so far as to sue the organization behind the Powerball lottery, claiming that they violated his newly issued patent (7,740,537) on "applying lottery multipliers. Seriously. How is that possibly patentable?

Filed Under: jay walker, patents
Companies: priceline, walker digital