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Google and Yahoo Settle Overture Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes "Google and Yahoo have apparently settled their ongoing lawsuit involving patented on-line ad technology owned by Yahoo subsidiary Overture. (U.S. Patent 6,269,361). According to reports, Google will issue 2.7 million common shares to Yahoo in return for a license. Read more about the infringement suit here. This move is expected to lower any potential downsides to Google's upcoming IPO."
Just because some story involves the law doesn't mean it involves our rights online.
and I was cheering for google. :(
Yahoo targets Google with hostile takover.
So thats around $300 million for the license. Ouch.
How many shares are google issuing? What percantage will end up in the hands of yahoo?
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
So what percent of Google will Yahoo own?
Is it a common practice nowadays to use shares (IPO even) for payment?
My understanding is that if a share is not sold, you don't have a cent yet in your pocket.
The article estimated that would net Yahoo as much as an additional $149 million at the high end of Google's expected IPO price range. However, could (and would) Yahoo sell all shares at the high end price though?
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
Google Exec 1: "Yahoo is suing us for the way we display ads."
Exec 2: "Yeah, but look, this IPO thing is great! Look, it's so easy. I can just create a couple million shares here and and do whatever I..."
Exec 1: "Problem solved."
That's interesting. People are already saying that because of the auction format of the IPO, Google shares will probably not match their auction values any time in the short term. What an evil way to screw over Yahoo, use your own shares which are guarnteed to fall shortly thereafter. ;-)
Slashdot in 5 Paragraphs
lets see:
infringe on gooogles.com trademark
infringe on froogles.com trademark
infringe on gmail trademark
infringe on overture patent
track all searches via cookies and IP address
make stored information available to govt agencies
Google's just trying to get their stock out there and in the news, any way possible. Kind of strange way of doing it since they could have won the lawsuit I'm sure, but still. This is very odd behavior from Google.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Things get worse and worse everyday for Google, and to think they had months when the hype was absolutely unreal, yet they failed to capitalize. To quote Richard Russell, the guru market timer: "Google may know the web, but they know nothing about markets".
Even if Google stock falls to $1 a share (very unlikely), Yahoo would still make $2.7 million. It's not like the license costs Yahoo anything; they'll make plenty of money in any case.
... And with Google already acting like a penny stock, this is why I have no interest in the IPO.
I predict that it will come a time soon when nobody will know who owns any particular piece of IP due to complete confusion. This whole IP business is getting ridiculous. IP laws seemed to have been created for lawyers to make a living while contributing nothing to the economy.
The internet is a system that serves, among other things, as a conduit for exchanging ideas. Someone said that the internet never forgets. It is possible that most the newer patents involving software and the web are invalid due to prior art which can be found by searching the net. Someone else may have thought about it and posted it somewhere.
Is there a special place on the net where people can go and post ideas so as to make it impossible for the greedy bastards to patent them?
what in gods name did Overture invent? NOTHING!!! if google isn't going to fight this kind of crap, who will?
Why is this odd? It is an excellent business strategy.
First: When you are about to execute an IPO it is usually undesireable to have lawsuits hanging over your business. This is especially true when the suit is over a patent on your primary source of revenue.
Second: Settling lawsuits is common business practice even with suites that you would likely win. The cost of going to court and defending against the suit, not to mention possible damage to your company's image, is usually higher than the settlement's cost. Therefore, the settlement is viewed as a reduction in operating cost.
Finally: This particular settlement costs Google $0.00. They are literally manufacturing the "money" for this settlement. They are paying in stock. Stock that does not yet have a market value. And, any perceived loss on the potential sale of the stock is made up for by adding more stock to the IPO. It works GREAT for Google, from a business perspective.
Isn't that ironic?
Why couldn't you have the balls
So says the anonymous coward. If you're going to rag on someone/thing, have the balls to put your name behind it.
I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it to the death - Voltaire
They had invested $10 million in Google four years ago.
Although this looks like a straightforward patent suit, there are more dubious motives at play here. Specifically Google was in the middle of developing a new search technology that would finally bring search technology into 93% of all North American households (world wide estimates vary based on the region). Yahoo! used the suit to dilute Google's stock price and drain their cash reserves while Yahoo! develops their own alternative solution in a partnership with MSN.
I was skeptical at first until I was given a demo of the new technology by one of my old graduate school friends who is working for Google. The tool's interface is similar to Google's current standard search interface (although a verbal UI is under development). The killer feature, the feature that would have made Google search ubiquotous, is the ability to search for physical objects. I simply typed in "my keys" and I was given a reply "Your right pocket", along with a short description of the object, the # of key, use of the keys, and their GPS location. Amazing!
My friend, who for obvious reasons must go unnamed, told me the lawsuit will force google to shut down the project because the only way they could fund it was through context based advertisements (based on the infringing patent). He did however point me to this backdoor. I can't promise it will stay up very long... especially with the Slashdot crowd using and abusing it... so check it out while you can.
interesting response given your sig
Not really. You can say what you like and I'll even defend your right to make an ass-hat of yourself. Just have the sack to put your name to it.
I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it to the death - Voltaire
Hey, that patent was issued on the same day as mine (which happens to be hanging on the wall in front of me. It's off by 6.
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
Pwned =P
I was thinking of converting to paganism, but where the hell can you find sacrificial virgins these days?
If you invented something completely new and revolutionary, such as Bell's telephone, or the Wright brothers' plane, would you want to earn money from it for some time- or let anyone and everyone produce it and make the money (instead of you). Patents provide an incentive to discover and invent new things, and ensure your time, money and efforts don't go to waste.
It is funny you should say this because some of the most creative geniuses in the history of the world (Isaac Newton, Mozart, Beethoven, Blaise Pascal, Rene Descartes, etc...) had no patent protection whatsoever. And as far as someone else making money from my ideas is concerned, so what? I am making money and living a better life as a result of ideas from a bunch of other people who came before me, from the inventor of the wheel on down. One does not make money from an idea. One makes money from applying the idea to something useful: you gotta have a product. There is plenty of opportunities for everybody.
Patent laws are Big Brother laws that infringe on people's freedom. Let's face it. If you cannot put chains on it or put a fence around it, it does not belong to you. Like the air that we breathe, it belongs to nobody and everybody. Makes no difference if it's music, writing, software, you name it. There are people in the third world right now who are laughing at your patent laws. They're selling copies of Windows and MS Office in the streets for pennies on the dollar. Heck, they're laughing at them right here in the US. Music download has become an addictive pasttime for some people.
And one more thing, abolishing patent laws would encourage sharing and compassion and the love of neighbor, things that seem to be on the extinction list in the world these days.
By saying have the sack to put your name to your opinion I'm admitting to not being interesting...?
I think you need to put your crack pipe down and take a giant step away from it.
I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to say it to the death - Voltaire
My name is Krishen Juis. There, now you know. So what difference does it make to you? Hmm?
Like most people ready for the Google IPO, I am expecting the IPO to come in at the low end of the range. By Google giving common shares as payment, Google is not going to be hurt by the deal only the investors. It is almost like $200-$300M of investors money will be used to pay for this lawsuit right away. Even more reasons for us day traders to short the hell out of GOOG.
Aj
-------
artlu.net
Sorry, code management. elhaf spelled backwards is...
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
"If you invented something completely new and revolutionary, such as Bell's telephone..."
What a great example from an IP lawyer! The telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci. He died seven years into a lawsuit with Bell. There's even been a Congress resolution admitting he invented it.
Oh the irony.
"Patents provide an incentive to discover and invent new things, and ensure your time, money and efforts don't go to waste."
Try telling that to Meucci.
cLive ;-)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
All of these PTO conflicts show there's a lot wrong with the system. But all of the settlements leave the people with no legal precedent. It makes it harder for corporations, too, but they've got a lot less risk than people who could lose their own money, and perhaps even go to jail. The PTO crisis should at least take into account the most common lawsuits, and their resolutions, even if only to perform an analysis of the system that produces them, and not to decide the merit of any specific complaint.
So at least the PTO can gain from the current torrent of fiascos. The court system, for which the people pay, can't recoup any of its costs from these settlements without fines, but it needs a bigger overhaul than even the PTO to account for corporate abuse of its economics.
--
make install -not war
because I said "interesting response" and you said "not really".
crack pipe!? ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha very original.
Who is behind OS3i, or Open Source Software Society of India, ? Does anybody know who's running this organization ?
yeah dude, good point, "flying_monkies" is real ballsy of you, fucking hypocrite
Ah well, worth a try. Are you still in the city listed on the patent? How's the economy doing in that Dallas-to-Allen belt? I was down that way about a year ago, and there seemed to be a lot of office space for lease.
Oh, and congrats on the patent!
Due to the dutch auction process, instead of the banks and investment firms netting the huge windfall of the people buying Google at twenty times its value, Google will get the cash. That gives Google a huge pile of money to play with. What they do with that money will determine how much their stock is worth in a few months.
.com boom then bust stocks.
I don't think they will buy Sun or Apple, but that's the sort of money they'll have, in cash. Combine the cash with a bit more equity and they likely could take over one of those two. If they play a big card (not necessarily one of those two) successfully they could maintain their value much better than the
It's more than just the idea, the idea has to be implemented. Of course, with software, implementation is a lot easier than with "real" things... FYI, Google-owned patents. The biggest problem I see is that the patent office is completely overwhelmed. A big company strategy I've noticed over the last few years is basically relying on statistics to get stuff through. IBM patents many patents a day. I'm sure the acceptance rate is not that high, but if you send in enough... after you get it in, you can bascially make as much from it as it will cost to litigate. Go lawyers.
Potentially more important than being discussed? See this piece at The Register for a different take.
Hello this is my first ever posting to Slashdot so be gentle please. Do you think that in the next few years we could see a Google/Yahoo merger/takeover? If so what would they be called? My money is on GooHoo!. Do you GooHoo? The domain already registered though, I have checked.
This would explain why Google's AdWords are so expensive for buyers and so cheap for sellers - they are too busy pissing their money away on stupid things. Perhaps they will buy Linux licenses from SCO next for their massive cluster, just to be safe. This doesn't give me much faith in the company if I was a potential investor, which I am not.
...you insensitive clod.
what is the nature of the patent? did overture really come up with something interesting that google used (if so, how did google get their hands on the technology), or was overture simply first in line at the patent office for the whopping idea of "matching ads to search queries"?
--Brian