Quote:
Originally Posted by tubemonkey
The main problem is that most of these patents were granted in the first place.
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A problem to those that want a free ride, maybe.
Be careful: what today seems obvious was not necessarily obvious or trivial at the time of the filing. When it comes to OS tech, MS is old school so a lot of now-common work was done first there.
It might be inconvenient for newcomers but if they did the work first they were entitled to patent it.
As for B&N, they have placed themselves in a position where either they win or they are made an example of. Not smart. Smart companies don't go scorched earth in public.
It's not as if they even have the money to pay the legal fees for the all-out court warfare needed for a "win" so what they really are facing is a lose-lose scenario.
Somebody ought to tell B&N about NTP vs RIM.
NTP started out asking for a few million, RIM refused; they went to court, lost and the judge awarded NTP $56 million. RIM appealed and challenged the patents. They lost the appeal and the debt grew to $612 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTP,_Inc.