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Engineer Loses SSL Patent Case against RSA and VeriSign
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."
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Stambler filed his suit in February 2001 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington. RSA and VeriSign were not the only defendants; Stambler also sued Openwave Systems Inc., First Data Corp, Omnisky Corp., and later, Certicom Corp. Omnisky later went bankrupt, and the three other companies each settled with Stambler.
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Looks like some random "genius" decided he'd make a quick buck on old technology. I'm so sick of this behavior. Anyone remember the Pocket PC fiasco? The guy claimed that MS infringed on his "Pocket PC" which was just a casino style chip that you flip to make decisions. If you don't remember you can read more at http://news.com.com/2100-1023-805115.html?legacy=c net&tag=lthd
Meanwhile, Jeff Besoz tries to patent "patenting random stupid shit." Good luck with that one, Jeff. Thank you for bringing us innovations like "One-click shopping" and "hyperlinking" and "the internet".
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.
I thought I could instruct slashdot readers on how actually the patenting process works . Good luck ;)
Am I the only one who thinks this trial has proceeded in reverse order? Surely it would have made more sense to ascertain the patent validity before worrying about whether or not it was infringed.
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
Then you thought incorrectly. Trademarks are subject to such a required defense, but patents and copyrights are not.
There is the doctrine of laches, which allow a judge to hold that a patent holder, having allowed a use of their patent to go on without notice, cannot collect damages for use of their patent prior to filing suit, but this in no way invalidates their patent nor does it prevent them from collecting damages if the same defendant should happen to infringe on their patent in the future. (Laches is basically a way of wedging the reasonable "but I didn't know it was a problem" defense into patent law)
And no, IANAL, but I do know how to use Google (TM).
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
It wasn't a patent issue. The guy was simply claiming that MS was infringing on his trademark rights.
http://www.pdabuzz.com/News/viewnews.cgi?newsid101 0641863,9371,
Background: 28/M/Bi-Sexual; Owner of a Linux company; MBA Harvard 2003; B.S. Comp Sci MIT 2000
I'm sorry, but I've already patented the process of patenting a process of making a patent.
You may speak to my attorneys to arrange a use license.
Please don't try to fight this in court. I've patented that. You'll need a license.
The internet infringes on my license for making odd symbols, pointing at them, and grunting as a crude form of communication between any animate object and any other object ( animate or not).
This patent itself merely extends my previous patent on forces between fundmental particles.
Face it, you're hosed.
KFG
The big question is, when will Delaware clean up its act? Not content to merely keep quiet and maintain a not-unprofitible existence as screen door manufacturer for the world, Delaware has lately been attempting to hijack the limelight for itself in a series of staged "coincidences" which I believe are too well-planned to have been anything but a massive attempt to gain prestige amongst the other 49 states. Consider, if you will:
Engineer has "patents" which would invalidate the security of the Internet. Where does he go? Delaware.
Marvel Comics, home of Spider-Man, the X-Men, and many other lovable good guys, files for bankruptcy. Where are they forced to do it? Delaware.
The movie Fight Club. Where's it take place? Delaware.
In an episode of the Cosby Show, Vanessa's car is stolen. In Delaware.
Look, I'm a pretty average guy, not some conspiracy nut. But the evidence speaks for itself: Delaware wants to rule the world. And something must be done. Thank you.
Why patents suck: http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/Images/chess-flyer-crop-thum bnail.jpg
You can get sued for writing a program like the one above. It's 3 lines of code. No, really guys. It's 3 friggin' lines of code.
Look at it! It's a patent on the fucking EXCLUSIVE OR operation that's standard in every microchip ever made since the 1950s.
THAT, my friends, is why I don't trust patents. You never know how they can be extended.
PLUS they're a large gov't organization that's slow and stagnant. Let the people innovate!
Background: 28/M/Bi-Sexual; Owner of a Linux company; MBA Harvard 2003; B.S. Comp Sci MIT 2000
I'm sorry, but I've already patented the process of patenting a process of making a patent.
Hah! Two weeks ago I patented recursive patents, so it looks like you'll lose now!
I could make some enlightened post that dazzles all who read it with its genius, but I won't. Instead I'll quote the character Dick from Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 2.
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
Looks more like evidence that the Patent office is owned by money and does not serve individual inventors. How are this man's patents any different from any other BS work protected by that office? Are they even valid? Most importantly, what makes you think he did not do anything with those patents or even needed to?
You don't need to do anything other than put a good faith effort. I could have an idea that would take billions of dollars to implement, it's still mine and the patent office would still grant me protection of that idea for being good enough to share it through them. If the only companies in the world with the kinds of resources to work that patent decided to sit for seventeen years the world is just that much worse off.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
---if Microsoft figured out how to implement Google's page rank system
OH Come now.. We all know that Google uses the Pigeon Rank system.
I've said that we should ignore software patents UNTIL all the crap in the system is worked out. We still end up with a few garbage non-software patents...
But how do you prove non-intuitive to a non-computer geek? XOR was 'patented' a while back (in the eighties) as a way of coloring/moving the mouse. The company who got that patent then went to computer expos and simply blackmailed damn near everybody who said they had a gui (and had that negative mouse style).
We need to DISREGARD ALL SOFTWARE PATENTS until this mess is fixed. And yes, that means going through the patent papers and making projects that infringe upon them.
GIF possibly patented? Well, now we have .png, which is also a superior format.
It's not superior if nobody can view it. Among popular web browsers, only KHTML-based (Konqueror; Safari) and Gecko-based (Mozilla; Netscape) browsers can display the MNG format. The most popular web browser supports GIF animations but not PNG animations out of the box. Thus, to reach the largest audiences, web sites will still serve animated advertisement banners as GIF instead of MNG.
Will I retire or break 10K?
You have to defend trademarks, not patents or copyrights. You can sit and let a patent stagnate for 10 years and then sue the balls off everyone later.
If an alleged infringer convinces a U.S. court that a patent holder has harmed competitors by delaying legal action relating to a patent, the court may impose "laches" on him. Laches would mean that he cannot collect damages for infringements that had occurred before the patent holder brought legal action. Precedent states that a delay of at least six years is presumed harmful to competitors.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Fellas, the argument's moot, the patent expires this June.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD