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Engineer Loses SSL Patent Case against RSA and VeriSign

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the intellectual-property-lines dept.

MeanMF writes "eWeek reports that a jury has ruled in favor of the defendants in a patent infringement lawsuit brought by an electrical engineer who clamed rights to a technology used in the SSL protocol. Not only did he lose the case, but next week the jury will rule on whether his patents are valid at all."

3 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Patents by evilmonkey_666 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was always under the impression that patents cannot be inforced if the holder sits back and allows their technology to be used and adopted, only to decide that they want royalties years later, when people have come to rely on it.

    This, I thought was illegal. Owners of patents have an obligation to tell people that they are using licensed technology, and that they have a right to charge a fee.

    --


    - PS. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R where eliminated.
  2. why did the other 3 settle? by scorilo · · Score: 3, Interesting
    What I don't understand is why did the other 3 settle? Just how big do you have to be to dispute the validity of a patent?

    Perhaps patents are becoming the scare factors that derivatives used to be (and still are), where even professionals working in the field can claim in court that they don't understand what's going on and get away with it...

    --
    "One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that ones work is terribly important." -BRussell
  3. Good. by Rev.LoveJoy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Not to take joy in the bludgeoning of the little guy, but this dude is a squatter. Patents should expire if you don't do anything with them for 2 years.

    Ohhh, ohhh, I've got this really good idea, but rather than do something with it (that involves risk!) I'll just patent it and sit around until some big company does something close enough that I can sue them.

    Our legal and "intellectual property" (poverty?) system supports this - that's the news and that's the thing we should work to change.

    Cheers,
    -- RLJ