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Toshiba Sues Over DVD Patents
angry tapir writes "Toshiba has filed suit in a US court against Imation and several manufacturers and distributors of recordable DVD media for the alleged infringement of its patents. Imation and the other defendant companies named in the complaint do not have license agreements covering recordable DVD media with Toshiba or the DVD6C Licensing Group (DVD6C), and have engaged in the import and sale of recordable DVD media in the US without permission, according to Toshiba."
Flash drives are ridiculously cheap, and substantially more convenient. DVD-Rs can either embrace dirt-cheapness and utter commodification, or they can die.
There ought to be a law against patents. They have never ever in the past been used for anything other than patent trolling and innovation stiffling.
In school, I used to get told that if I wanted to eat candy in class that I would have to provide enough for everyone. Toshiba brought enough for everyone, but some companies are trying to get more than their fair share by not paying for a license. Toshiba is completely in the right to demand payment for the licenses.
On the other hand, this is why killing HD-DVD was such an important thing. Putting two major patent holders (Toshiba and Microsoft) in charge of the direction of the de facto media format would have been disastrous.
How exactly is this a patent troll? It seems to me that Toshiba retains the rights to patents legitimately obtained for actual innovation and have long been known about and licensed to others. Toshiba isn't holding the patents for ransom with outrageous licensing terms, submarining them, or keeping them a secret until after a standard was ratified and then springing them. I'd say that for a system that has all sorts of flaws and issues, this is a legitimate case where the system is working as it was intended in a legitimate fashion.
Sorry, no... Toshiba already invested in the R&D and Memorex has been ripping them off
Memorex needs to pay (hopefully reasonable) licensing costs like all the other DVD-R manufacturers
No sig for the moment.
Developing a new form of optical storage costs a lot of money in terms of R&D. The people who front this cash need to get it back somehow. If you can come up with a better way of doing this than patenting the new technologies and charging a license fee, then all you need to do is persuade someone to invest...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
So let's take the current case, for example.
I see no evidence the patent wasn't licensed in good faith, or that the patent-holder was deliberately sitting on the patent to increase potential damages. So not a troll. (Unless you define "troll" as 'used in a way you personally don't approve of', which is as good as meaningless.)
The companies they're suing aren't trying to "innovate"; they're just manufacturing and distributing an already-designed item.
Whatever you may think of this suit, it is a clear counter-example to your claim about patents in general.
An argument could be made that from a physical perspective only, recordable DVD media is not dramatically different from recordable CD media.
The player technology, specifically with reference to encryption, interfaces and lasers, obviously would qualify for patent protection as they were novel inventions when they were invented.
Recordable media however, not quite so easy.
On another note, my personal belief is that when manufacturers create shell organizations to jointly patent their technology, it creates an insurmountable barrier to entry for competing manufacturers who weren't a party to the initial technology development. As both supporting and countering evidence, we had BluRay and HDDVD. The lack of quickly industry standardization led to two competing formats(bad) but also no collusion between manufacturers to prevent new manufacturers from entering(also bad, because it's really a monopoly).
Obviously, neither is perfect and something has got to change.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
And what do they do when someone else who didn't invest in the R&D starts producing them for half the cost (because they don't have to cover the R&D costs)?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
For a time, certain arms manufacturers dominated the market because anything
that looked similar would likely trigger a lawsuit. So while it did take
quite literally centuries for a lot of the R&D in guns to come to fruition,
it also caused stagnation for decades as these patents sorted themselves
out.
Now that's just the collateral damage.
The real question remains unanswered: were they necessary?
17 years is a long time in the current tech market.
Contemplate the state of your Windows box 17 years ago.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Your argument is weak at best.
If someone owns rights to something that you think you have 'invented', then you are not the inventor of said item. In which case, they are correct to have their way with your ass. Leave or bend over.
So lets take the NDA approach which in theory may sound like the best thing since sliced bread. However that little piece of paper has holds absolutely no weight if the company disolves, or if you have no proof of an employee selling your secret. Either of which doesn't matter anyway because you don't own any rights to your idea except with the guy you showed it to.
Come on, an NDA isn't going to stop anyone from ripping off your cute idea. In the end, it may give you satisfaction that you put that little shop out of business, all the while 20 other factories are happily churning out your device while you get nothing. Mean while your lawyer is sending you bills.
So what then happens to all that time and money you put into researching and building your cute little device? I guess that goes right out the window because now there are 50 other places making your cute device.
If you expect to make money off your idea, then you need to have it protected. Otherwise, you may has well just give it to a lawyer, because they are the only one that will make a profit from it