Patent Troll Says Anyone Using Wi-Fi Infringes

akahige sends this excerpt from an article at TechDirt: "The Patent Examiner blog has the incredible story of Innovatio IP, a patent troll that recently acquired a portfolio of patents that its lawyers (what, you think there are any employees?) appear to believe cover pretty much any Wi-Fi implementation. They've been suing coffee shops, grocery stores, restaurants and hotels first — including Caribou Coffee, Cosi, Panera Bread Co, certain Marriotts, Best Westerns, Comfort Inns and more. ... The lawyer representing the company, Matthew McAndrews, seems to imply that the company believes the patents cover everyone who has a home Wi-Fi setup, but they don't plan to go after such folks right now, for 'strategic' reasons."

Comments

Nothing from Hams?

[nhstar]

So, I guess amateur radio operators have been infringing since, what... the early 1900's? Voice is just data, right..?

Re:Nothing from Hams?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey! You! Stop that right now! You leave your logic out of this! This is the patent system we're talking about!

Take out a hit?

[ArchieBunker]

At some point its just cheaper to pay someone to take a hit out on a troll like this. Maybe invite him out on your new yacht and have a little accident...

Re:Take out a hit?

[Joey Vegetables]

Have them go out on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney.

Re:Take out a hit?

[cgenman]

“We want you to continue to use this technology, we just want our client to get his due share,” McAndrews said. “This is not a seat-of-the-pants, fly-by-night shakedown.”

Well, they admitted that it's a professional shakedown. A professional hit seems only fair.

Re:Take out a hit?

[sg_oneill]

Burn down their house, enslave their children, forcibly sell their wives into slavery. Napalm the suburb, nuke the capital. Use waterboarding, electric shock, exposure and "pressure points". Rape their dog, garrot their parents, and TNT the homes of their high school sweethearts.

But please, we live in a civilized world, lets not debase ourselves with such barbarianism as asking our enemys go on hunting trips with Dick cheney.

Only one solution.

[Ariastis]

Kill them with fire.

Re:Only one solution.

[DarkFencer]

Kill them with fire.

Not enough. These aren't your run of the mill D&D trolls that can be killed by fire.

Nuke from orbit to be sure.

Classic patent trolling

[JoshuaZ]

Ok. This is classic patent trolling. They aren't going after the Wi-Fi manufacturers who have the resources to possibly fight this in court but rather going against the little people. There's an obvious fix for this. Force people to sue the companies that make potentially infringing technologies rather than the people who buy them until there's a precedent with the company that the tech is infringing. Unfortunately, with the grab-bag of junk that is America Invents now done, everyone is going to avoid serious patent reform for another decade. So this isn't getting fixed for a while. Then we'll probably get some other terrible mix of good and bad stuff in some new law and the whole process will repeat itself. Good for the lawyers. Not very good for everyone else.

Re:Classic patent trolling

[Genda]

Ask to meet all their top executives of this cesspool, take them out on a rented yacht. Insure it to high hell. Take it off the coast of Mexico, and inform the local drug cartel that a bunch of wealthy gringos are meeting to figure out a way bomb them off the face of the earth, then over take their drug business. After the smoke, screaming and mutilation stop... go collect your insurance, pay off the boat owner, and pocket the remainder. Inform the U.S. justice system that Mexican Drug Lords have murdered American national. Let Karma play out and consider justice has been dispensed on all fronts. Building a better world one elimination at a time!

Re:Classic patent trolling

[dgatwood]

Because the U.S. patent system is fundamentally and completely broken. Patents cover the manufacture, distribution, or use of a patented technology. What, you didn't really think you owned that Wi-Fi access point, did you?

The only reason this complete joke of a scheme hasn't led to public outcry is that the patent trolls haven't managed to screw over a broad enough segment of the population to make any real impact. If strict application of patent law were to allow some dirtbag company like this to take away the country's Internet connections, however, I predict all of Washington D.C. would be burning within the hour, sure as if Congress canceled Monday Night Football.

As for this company, I vote we just go ahead and declare them to be enemy combatants and get it over with. It'll save everyone the trouble of dealing with the rioting and looting later. Just saying.

Re:"Strategic Reasons"

[Anonymous Coward]

They could not recoup their losses going after home users the way they can with business users.

What losses?

Short term thinking

[Weedhopper]

This solves one problem only once. Then the portfolios passes to the next person and the problem repeats itself.

To solve the general problem, we need to encourage more ridiculous patent trolls. This needs to get to a critical threshold where the entire system is brought on trial and exposed for the absolute absurdity that it is.

Re:Short term thinking

[LordLucless]

This solves one problem only once. Then the portfolios passes to the next person and the problem repeats itself.

So does the solution. Repeat as necessary

Re:I don't see the rationale

[mbkennel]

"The page linked to by this summary did not explain why the patent trolls are going after the users of WiFi devices, rather than vendors."

actually it did:

"The company is demanding a one-time lump sum licensing payment between $2,300 and $5,000 from each of the several hundred defendants targeted in its lawsuits, McAndrews said. Some of the defendants have already settled, he added."

"In casting such a wide net, Innovatio (it means “innovation” in Latin, McAndrews said) displays a new approach in patent enforcement. In a field where patent-holding companies often demand six- or seven-figure dollar amounts for damages, five-figure settlements are considered basement-low. By demanding a few thousand dollars, Innovatio ensures that, for many small business owners, taking up a legal defense won’t make financial sense."

They are suing when they can pursue action cheaper than the defendant can defend. If the patent were strong they'd go after big money, but the big money will fight and since the patent is weak, they will instead play spam.

Also, by suing a large number of people in diverse locations and jurisdictions they will make it difficult for defendants to defend collectively and economically.

Think of all the Jobs Being Created by the Job Creator Class, isn't it lovely?

Re:CSIRO

[femto]

I'd like to know what number patents Innovatio are using. The CSIRO patent (5,487,069, filed in 1992) was a pretty complete description of the 802.11 OFDM physical layer. Surely anything else has to be a minor and obvious increment? The oldest patent I can see, with inventors Meier and Mahany, is 5,394,436, filed in 1994, and it does not refer to the CSIRO patent (meaning it is open to challenge from the CSIRO patent?) 5,394,436 might apply to the MAC layer, rather than the physical layer, and it is quite vague. Defenders might want to refer to the PARROT project, which the CSIRO was running as part of its WLAN work, predating 5,394,436. PARROT was a complete WLAN MAC layer (google: csiro parrot mac layer).

There was also a PhD thesis that came out of Macquarie University in the early 1990's. The name of the author escapes me, but the supervisor was David Skellern. The thesis described a MAC layer for mobile IP, and fed heavily into the standards at the time.

Re:CSIRO

[femto]

Andrew Myles was the author of the thesis.

Re:CSIRO

[Stellian]

They have 34 assorted patents that they are using as an Argumentum Verbosium - Proof by intimidation. They make up hundreds of pages of legalese, there's no way a business can defend itself without spending tens of thousands on patent attorneys to examine those claims and cross-check them against the WiFi standards. Below are the 17 patents asserted against Holiday Inn, have fun. (Talk about "redundant" patents!)

  6,714,559 “Redundant Radio Frequency Network Having A Roaming Terminal Communication Protocol.”
  7,386,002 “Redundant Radio Frequency Network Having A Roaming Terminal Communication Protocol.”
  7,535,921 “Redundant Radio Frequency Network Having A Roaming Terminal Communication Protocol.”
  7,548,553 “Redundant Radio Frequency Network Having A Roaming Terminal Communication Protocol.”
  5,740,366 “Communication Network Having Plurality Of Bridging Nodes Which Transmit A Beacon To Terminal Nodes In Power Saving State That It Has Messages Awaiting Delivery.”
  5,940,771 “Network Supporting Roaming, Sleeping Terminals.”
  6,374,311 “Communication Network Having A Plurality Of Bridging Nodes Which Transmit A Beacon To Terminal Nodes In Power Saving State That It Has Messages Awaiting Delivery.”
  7,457,646 “Radio Frequency Local Area Network.”
  5,546,397 “High Reliability Access Point For Wireless Local Area Network.”
  5,844,893 “System For Coupling Host Computer Means With Base Transceiver Units On A Local Area Network.”
  6,665,536 “Local Area Network Having Multiple Channel Wireless Access.”
  6,697,415 “Spread Spectrum Transceiver Module Utilizing Multiple Mode Transmission.”
  7,013,138 “Local Area Network Having Multiple Channel Wireless Access.”
  7,710,907 “Local Area Network Having Multiple Channel Wireless Access.”
  7,916,747 “Redundant Radio Frequency Network Having A Roaming Terminal Communication Protocol.”
  7,873,343 “Communication Network Terminal With Sleep Capability.”
  7,536,167 “Network Supporting Roaming, Sleeping Terminals.”