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NTP Sues Palm, Alleging Patent Violation
mikesd81 writes "The Seattle Time reports that NTP is now going after Palm for patent infringement on technology used in their devices. The suit asks the court to bar Palm from continuing to infringe on NTP's patents and seeks monetary damages for the alleged past infringements. At issues are eleven patents, dating from 1995 to 2001, according to the lawsuit. Five of the patents were part of NTP's lawsuit against RIM. The Palm complaint also centers on products, services and systems that integrate e-mail systems with wireless communications, including the Treo, Palm VII, Palm i700 and Tungsten products." You may recall NTP from the just-finished Blackberry case. Good to know they're staying busy.
.... you have to make money somehow. Seems NTP's choice is to extort money using the court system.
Just as I thought... NTP is an evilcompany (tm) that wants to hurt me personally.
Although I have two palms (and two hands, two arms, etc), I don't like the fact that the Network Time Protocol has suddenly gone through the Intarweb tubes to the lawyers and is taking legal action against parts of my body.
What's next? HTTP suing my big toe? Telnet suing my liver? When will it all end?!? Ohh the humanity...
TDz.
When you pay a blackmailer to leave you alone, even if they do, you've paid them to stay alive long enough to bother someone else.
And when the cops won't stop them, they're unstoppable.
--
make install -not war
What products does NTP make? I was thinking of performing a boycott of what seems to be an overly-litigious company, but can't find any targets.
The even ones? How many is that?
Dear NTP:
Please eat excrement and die.
The NTP lawsuit claims that certain Palm products infringe seven NTP patents. All seven of the patents asserted are being re-examined by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and have been rejected by the re-examiners as invalid. Palm also noted that the NTP patents disclose a pager-based email service that has nothing in common with the mobile-computing devices invented by Palm. Palm has been in occasional contact with NTP concerning a license to these patents. When Palm last communicated with NTP many months ago, however, each of the patents already was the subject of re-examination proceedings by the PTO. Palm is disappointed that, after many months of silence and repeated rejections of NTP's claims by the PTO, NTP has chosen to sue on patents of doubtful validity. Palm respects legitimate intellectual property rights, but will defend itself vigorously against the attempted misuse of the patent and judicial systems to extract monetary value for rights to patents that may ultimately have no value at all.
Yes, it did work the first time and I don't see how anyone could be surprised by this. According to the article, NTP contacted 3Com (Palm's parent company) the same time they contacted RIM. Basically, NTP "annexed the Sudetenland" and RIM appeased them, thus setting a precedent. We all know how well appeasement works to deter aggression now, don't we?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
I just want to know how they were harmed that they deserve damages. Was the sales of their non-existent products harmed by sales of Palms?
The patent itself is rediculous and a perfect example of why software patents must go. You have a PC-like device capable of displaying and inputting text. Just how inventive do you have to be to think, "Hey, you could use this for email!" That's patentable??
Well, another example that the world is reaching new extremes, and US is (usually) the first place for any extreme to occur. SO now it's perfectly normal to make money doing nothing, more: using the system that should provide the protection to the inventors to further encourage the development of new stuff.
Sometimes I really believe that self-destruction (or more often, self-mutilation) is something that people cannot live without.
This particular company is looking leachlike but the intent of patents is positive. Without them there would be very little incentive to develope new technology. Why spend a 100 million developing a new computer chip when six months from now a competitor can have a knock off on the market and under cut your price because they don't have to repay development costs. It's one of the reasons China has embraced piracy, it saves a bundle. Most of the world is getting tired of it and they are starting to threaten trade sanctions so China is claiming they will stop the piracy. Some industries are abusing the patent system. The worst offenders are actually the drug companies. They aren't happy that patnets actually do run out so once cahs cows go generic they spend tens of millions developing a patentable alternative that maybe less effective but at least they control it and can coerce the doctors into perscribing it so they can go back to charging $10 a pill for something that should sell for $1. Technology we can potentially live without but drugs often mean life or death to people so the drug companies are playing games with people's health just to make an extra buck. What the tech companies are doing is sleazy but what the drug companies are doing is criminal and costs lives to protect profits. Billions of dollars every year goes into finding replacement drugs rather than finding new cures so they money is wasted. Trust me there's far more money going into finding a Viagra replacement for when that patent runs out than is going into an AIDs cure.There's simply more profit in it. 50,000 to 80,000 lives are lost in the US from the flu yet many years there are shortages of the vaccine because it's cheap to manufacture but has some risk so the drug companies don't see it as profitable to make, simply not worth the lawsuits.
I hope the judge doesn't give them the time of day!
NTP just thought the time seemed right.
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
Dear NTP,
Palm is a company dedicated to innovation and a fair marketplace, and as such would like to offer a conditional out of court settlement in this matter.
The conditions of the offer are as follows:
1. NTP issues a public statement withdrawing it's claims of patent infringement against Palm.
2. Agree that this settlement will indemnify Palm, it's directors and any third-parties licensing our technology against future claims.
3. This agreement by bound by the laws of the State of California.
4. This agreement remains strictly confidential. Any breach of the secrecy of this agreement will result in litigation by jury trial in the above-noted jurisdiction.
5. Payment of past licensing fees to NTP will be in full and must be requisitioned from our affiliate bank in the "Triangle of Death" of the democratic country of Iraq.
6. Funds will only be relinquished to a member of your Board of Directors or Senior Management Team.
7. Our bankers are heavily armed, but we assure you this is for YOUR protection.
I hope you find this agreement to your satisfaction and this matter can be put to rest.
Sincerely,
Palm
I see the solution to the US patent roulette as simple: Don't establish a US office. Force all customers to contract with a head office in a nation that has SANE laws that aren't sold to the highest bidder. Force them to deal with fair courts, and cut them off if they don't abide by agreements.
If necessary, establish offices in a jurisdiction like Germany where innovation and privacy trump companies that have no products.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Indeed. And what really chaps my butt is that a year from now, a Treo is going to cost me $50 more than it otherwise would have because Palm has to figure out how to pay the lawyers they'll need to defend against this silliness. I think a lot of people (not so many here on Slashdot, but people in general) forget about that aspect of the frivolous lawsuit -- no matter who wins or loses, the attorneys get paid. And this creates higher prices, wipes out the companies with tighter margins (but possibly better products), and generally winnows everything down to our products being available only from the companies with the most lawyers (design and product relevance be damned).
I agree, too, with other posters here -- it's a stumper when there's nothing to boycott. It would sure be nice to do something to protest their behavior, but we're down to TP and flaming poop bags on the doorstep -- they don't DO anything (outside of file lawsuits). To paraphrase Say Anything (a good John Cusack movie from 1989) -- they don't buy anything sold or processed, sell anything bought or processed, or process anything bought or sold.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
RIM is a Canadian company, and that didn't work for them.
Even if your offices are out of the US, US courts still have the jurisdiction to shut down your operations in the US.
:(){