Smartphones Patented — Just About Everyone Sued 1 Minute Later

This week the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a surprisingly (although I guess it shouldn't be) broad patent for a "mobile entertainment and communication device". Upon closer inspection you may notice that it pretty much outlines the ubiquitous smartphone concept. "It's a patent for a mobile phone with removable storage, an internet connection, a camera and the ability to download audio or video files. The patent holding firm who has the rights to this patent wasted no time at all. At 12:01am Tuesday morning, it filed three separate lawsuits against just about everyone you can think of, including Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, ATT, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, Samsung and a bunch of others. Amusingly, the company actually first filed the lawsuits on Monday, but realized it was jumping the gun and pulled them, only to refile just past the stroke of midnight. "

Comments

abusive behaviour

[Atreide]

putting abusive people in jail would make them think twice

they cost money to other companies, but also to state and law
how can tribunal tolerate such behaviour and not fine a big toll ?

Awesome`

[moogied]

Finally, a firm got enough balls to blatantly abuse the living crap out of the patent system. Maybe this will start the much needed rework of the patent system.

They sued WHO?

[sirwired]

They do realize that IBM, from it's lofty perch near the top of the Fortune 500, doesn't take too kindly to patent extortion? Especially pathetic ones like this? The same IBM that is a company that does not manufacture phones of any kind, smart or otherwise? The same IBM that has a larger patent portfolio than the next-highest competitor by a substantial margin? The same company that probably has a patent on breathing and a another patent on filing patent lawsuits? The same IBM with a quite famous, take-no-prisoners legal strategy? The same IBM that just spent more in legal fees fighting SCO than the company was worth?

Methinks a couple of those plaintiffs are going to get dropped from the suit, quite quickly. Unless of course IBM wants to make an example of them (not out of the question), in which case they will have their patent forcibly invalidated, with maybe some Sherman Act sprinkled on top for good measure.

SirWired

Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes they do .. for example the RIMM versus a patent holding company called NTP:

http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/03/technology/rimm_ntp/

Other situations companies settle such as this one where a company claimed it owned rights to JPEG

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2005/02/21/daily14.html

So yeah, patent trolling can be quite lucrative from a financial standpoint .. but I dunno what it does to the conscience.

patent lawyers

[intthis]

i've been going through the motions of getting some software patented (using a specialist law firm in chicago) and mid-way through the process, i stopped proceedings to entirely rework / rethink the project, because some troll like this had written a patent for something disturbingly simple, and worded it such that it expanded miles beyond it's scope... to a point that it encroached on... well... everything...

every time i see cases like this, i have to wonder... do i just need shadier patent lawyers? or should i just rely on the people who review these things to be completely blind to all prior art?

Re:Three words ... Initial Public Offering

[Marcion]

Probably lots, I mean you don't have to actually every get to trial, if you have sold the stock then the cash is in the bag (e.g. SCO).

Still not the best example, but:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eolas#The_patent

FYI

[MacarooMac]

From el Wiki on prior art

"Every country other than the United States uses a first-to-file system. This means that, regardless of who the first inventor was, the person or legal entity who files a patent application first is the one who can be granted a patent for the invention. The first-to-invent versus first-to-file rule is one of the major differences between U.S. patent law and the patents systems of other nations."

Mod Parent Way The Hell Up...

[Penguinisto]

Seriously - I'd love to see a clause put into any patent (and copyright) based lawsuit filing, signed by the CEO himself, that says:

"I hereby swear under penalty of perjury that I am filing this lawsuit in good faith. Furthermore, if my lawsuit is found to be without merit, and is dismissed with prejudice, then my corporate charter shall be dissolved, and my corporation's holdings shall be split and sold to the highest bidder at public auction. Furthermore, my corporate officers, who are members of my corporation's board at time of filing, shall be individually levied personal fines of 3x their individual annual personal income (consisting of, but not limited to: salary, bonuses, incentives, and all other forms of income), as calculated on the year this lawsuit was filed. My corporation furthermore cannot be sold, merged, transferred, or acquired by any other entity until the lawsuit is concluded, nor can board members be replaced except in the event of death or permanent incapacitation. My corporation furthermore cannot issue any further financial instruments during this time period, until the lawsuit is concluded (instruments include but are not limited to: stock issues, bond issues, or any other forms of publicly traded debt)."

That would simultaneously wipe out the RIAA, the MPAA, and damned near every real patent troll on the planet...

...or at least make the fsckers think real hard before they do it.

/P

(PS: if you can improve on it or correct dumb mistakes that I was bound to include inadvertently, please, go for it).

Apple

[mandos]

So the story says they sued Apple among others. Isn't one of the complaints that some people have against the iPhone that it Doesn't have removable storage? That would seem to exempt them from this patent.

Treo 600

[bill_mcgonigle]

The patent was originally filed on November 30, 2003. Can anyone say for sure there was prior art before this date?

Here's an IT Week Review of the Treo 600 dated November 6, 2003.

It sounds like they read the review and worked up a patent for it over the Thanksgiving holiday. :)

How about a new standard for patents - that if a patent is filed when a practitioner of the art would ordinarily know the patent to be invalid, and the patent is not withdrawn between the time of filing and the time of issue, that it's a criminal offense?

This is getting out of hand - not the least of which that it's over 4 years since filing for this patent to issue because the system is all gummed up with bogus patents.

Payola

[Weaselmancer]

I'd just look for a patent clerk driving a Lamborghini. Why look to stupidity when we have other equally icky human motivations for this?

I'm serious.

This almost has to be the work of bribery. How the hell could anyone not know that people have been putting video on cellphones already? How could you possibly claim that you haven't seen this before? Either it's bribery, or there's a patent clerk out there somewhere who doesn't own a TV and is communicating solely by carrier pigeon.

Re:Prior art -- SIM card?

[Derling Whirvish]

A SIM card is removeable storage is it not? The amount of data it stores is small, but it stores data and is removeable.

Re:Prior art?

[zete]

We should just get the patent office to read some of Tesla's work. This quote illustrates Tesla predicting smart phones more than 100 years ago: As soon as [the Wardenclyffe plant is] completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place... Nikola Tesla 1901

Re:Yes, everyone.

[Z00L00K]

Actually - to put an end to this - if a patent fails the patent office shall be equal liable to pay any costs arisen from giving an invalid patent.

This patent should have been dropped dead due to both prior art and obviousness. I just hope that the courts are going to dismiss the claims completely.