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Overture To A Patent War?

Posted by timothy on from the one-two-three-four dept.

Shackleford writes "CNET has an article discussing Yahoo's proposed $1.63 billion buyout of commercial search specialist Overture Services on Monday. Yahoo would acquire 60-plus patents related to technology and processes for indexing the Web, as well as for pay-per-click and bidding systems to grant sites higher placement in search results. The search market is expected to be reap $4 billion in revenue by 2005, according to researchers. As the industry matures, the competition for a piece of that large pie could lead companies to bulk up their IP legal teams, much like in other industries such as online advertising sales during the dot-com bust. And Overture sued FindWhat.com in February 2002 after FindWhat filed a summary judgment request in a New York federal court in an attempt to fend off any potential infringement charge from Overture. Two months later Overture filed a second lawsuit, charging Google with patent infringement in its pay-for-performance ad system. So is this the way the search engine competition will be won? Through patents and lawsuits?"

5 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. I guess so by Cipster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So is this the way the search engine competition will be won? Through patents and lawsuits?"
    I would say yes since the technological battle was won by Google a while back.
    The new motto of business: If you can't compete: Litigate!

  2. We're doomed.. by phuturephunk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lawbooks are the new Market Cornering Tool. We can't find new business models to innovate with, so we'd rather sit around the country and sue each other into oblivion..

    This country is in for some major comeuppance in the next couple decades.. Its gonna get NASTY.. Just you watch..

  3. didn't see that coming... by peterprior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the post .com era, with soaring spam (with half the sites they advertise not working, and random crap in the messages to avoid filters), huge flash adverts in the middles of pages, and sites going under every day, don't be suprised to see companies scraping by every way possible. Afterall, lawsuits and patent infringements, are practically the only source of real revenue. How many banner ad clicks does it take to get $1,000,000 ?

  4. Just remember. by janda · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Every time one of these lawsuits is filed, there's another chance for a judge to say, "this is stupid, goodbye patent".

    --
    Karma: Food Fight (Mostly affected by Date Plate).
  5. Re:Of course! It's the American way! by Jellybob · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think you can drop the ??? on this one.

    Wow! A profit model that works. On Slashdot.

    Whatever next?