PaidContent: Kindle Fire Hit With Patent Suit

[covfam]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

It also isn't exactly black and while between 'real' companies and patent trolls. Recently Google bought up some patents, then sold them to HTC to bolster their patent fight with Apple.

yeah to me thats pretty sleezy. and the reson why google isnt using those patents to directly is its very hard now days to act like lil helpless google is getting picked on by big bad apple. but hey lets lend the patents to other smaller companies and let them play the victom game.

Im sorry but puying then lending patents for other companies to sue is crap regardless of if you hate or love apple and once this tactic is done being used on apple it will be used on amazon then anyone else who google doesnt like.

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by covfam

yeah to me thats pretty sleezy. and the reson why google isnt using those patents to directly is its very hard now days to act like lil helpless google is getting picked on by big bad apple. but hey lets lend the patents to other smaller companies and let them play the victom game.

Im sorry but puying then lending patents for other companies to sue is crap regardless of if you hate or love apple and once this tactic is done being used on apple it will be used on amazon then anyone else who google doesnt like.

How is it sleezy? Google has the resources, and it is fiscally beneficial to Google that HTC wins the lawsuit Apple has brought against them. HTC's spare resources are tied up in the lawsuit, so Google helps them out by buying patents that can be used in a defensive legal strategy. Plus, the outcome of the court case could effect things potentially for the worst. If Apple wins, they could then go and sue all of Google's other partners, and Google directly.

It isn't that Google can't play the victim, but rather that at this point they're not directly involved at this point. If you see one of your friends being picked on, and know that as soon as your friend gets beat up that you'll be next, which would you rather do? Sit on your butt and do nothing, or help your friend? If your friend wins, they'll be thankful for you, and you'll not have the bully come directly after you.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Bangarang

I think this dysfunctional system will persist like this until some back breaker of case comes up, like a two-person company gets a patent on entering text into a computer with a keyboard, and it sends every company in the industry screaming to the feds and their Congresspeople.

Well, the wheel was patented in 2001 in Australia.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/...australia.html

And there is a US patent on getting a cat to chase the spot from a laser pointer.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

Acacia is literally a company in the business of buying patents in order to sue people.

"This American Life" episode 441 from July 22nd is an excellent introduction to patent trolling.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radi...patents-attack

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

It also isn't exactly black and while between 'real' companies and patent trolls. Recently Google bought up some patents, then sold them to HTC to bolster their patent fight with Apple.

How is buying patents as a defense against patent lawsuits patent trolling?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

How is buying patents as a defense against patent lawsuits patent trolling?

That isn't what they did.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

That isn't what they did.

How do you define patent trolling?

And what, specifically did Google do that constitutes patent trolling?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

And what, specifically did Google do that constitutes patent trolling?

I never said they were patent trolling.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I never said they were patent trolling.

Really then what are you trying to say in your above quote?

Originally Posted by covfam

yeah to me thats pretty sleezy.

You are quite missinformed about the whole law suit so let me educate you.

First question you should ask is why Apple and MS are suing HTC, B&N, Motorola, Samsung,etc... and not Google directly?

What is worse is while MS is suing for $. Apple is trying to shutdown their business.

Second Google has a very "Open innovation" stance to the point that it hurts them and their partners. They don't take patents out on most of their innovations and when they do they don't sue when their being infringed upon.

Take Apple now who sues everyone under the sun. (Apple Sues Teen Who Sold Steve Wozniak His White iPhone 4).

Google has found themselves in a bind. Without a patent portfolio anybody who supports Android is under attack and either forced to pay to use patents or forced to withdraw from the market.

Google giving HTC those patents helps fight back.


=X=

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by =X=

Really then what are you trying to say in your above quote?

That it isn't the case that 'real' companies develop things, patent them and then use those patents to defend their inventions, while patent trolls buy up other people's patents and then sue to try to make money from them.
That patents have become valuable commodities and are bought and sold as such by 'real' companies, who then sue to enforce their bought patents, even though they had nothing to do with the original invention.
That there is no longer any real link between the original invention and the patent.
And that this is just business as normal. If something has value, it will be bought and sold.

[And just to be clear, HTC is suing Apple, claiming that the iPhone violates the patents HTC bought from Google, who bought them from someone else; they are not using those patents to defend an Apple claim. (Although in patent fights there are always counter-suits, and in effect they become part of the defense by trying to force a cross-licencing agreement.)]

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by =X=

Really then what are you trying to say in your above quote?
Take Apple now who sues everyone under the sun. (Apple Sues Teen Who Sold Steve Wozniak His White iPhone 4).

=X=

Well, I intensely dislike Apple's tactics which led to Samsung's new tablets being unavailable here in Europe. However, it seems to me as if that teen ran a profitable enterprise selling stolen goods. The sale of stolen goods seems to be quite a legitimate reason for getting sued.

[OtterBooks]

WebOS may very well be sold today to someone looking to have its patents.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Bangarang

I think this dysfunctional system will persist like this until some back breaker of case comes up, like a two-person company gets a patent on entering text into a computer with a keyboard, and it sends every company in the industry screaming to the feds and their Congresspeople.

It's going to get worse with the new "first to file" system, which ignores "first to invent"...

[=X=]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Well, I intensely dislike Apple's tactics which led to Samsung's new tablets being unavailable here in Europe. However, it seems to me as if that teen ran a profitable enterprise selling stolen goods. The sale of stolen goods seems to be quite a legitimate reason for getting sued.

I don't believe he was selling stolen parts, no where does the story make that claim. Other news post that covered this story implied he was selling stolen parts.

What Apple was suing him for was "Copyright Infringement" because the kits he sold had the Apple logo on them.

=X=

[CommonReader]

So where did those parts come from? Fell off the back of a truck somewhere at Foxconn? Certainly, as Apple would have had a hard time to prove that they were stolen and as these parts where probably owned by Foxconn at that time it was a more promising option to sue because of copyright infringement.