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Google and Others Sued For Automating Email

Posted by kdawson on from the promoting-the-progress-of-science-and-the-useful-arts dept.

Dotnaught sends us to InformationWeek for news of the latest lawsuit by Polaris IP, which holds a patent on the idea of responding automatically to emails. The company has no products. It brought suit in the Eastern District in Texas, as many patent trolls do — though the article informs us that that venue has been getting less friendly of late to IP interests, and has actually invalidated some patents. The six companies being sued are AOL, Amazon, Borders, Google, IAC, and Yahoo. All previous suits based on this patent have been settled.

2 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. one mans idea is another mans patent troll by NemoinSpace · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Ftfp... >In order to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art, ... So let me understand, the company makes no product ... Only behemoths like Microsoft and Google should be allowed to dedicate massive resources to _succesfully?_ develop products based on other peoples insight? God forbid someone actually make money by THINKING. /dives into flame resistant suit/

  2. Re:Others precede it by QuantumG · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    What the patent covers is responding to customer queries with technical help.

    There's no prior art of such.

    Claiming that listserv is prior art is like claiming that telephone is prior art to a fax machine.

    And you look just as stupid.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.