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Honeywell Vs Nest: When the Establishment Sues Silicon Valley

Posted by Soulskill on from the going-for-the-jugular dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this quote from an article at TechCrunch: "Honeywell filed a multi-patent infringement lawsuit against Nest Labs and Best Buy yesterday. The suit alleges that Nest Labs is infringing on seven Honeywell patents. Honeywell is not seeking licensing fees. The consumer electronic conglomerate wants Nest Labs to cease using the technology and is actually looking to collect damages caused by the infringement. Damages? Bull****. This is about killing the competition."

3 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Get a Nest by Myopic · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have a Nest and it is awesome. Don't buy it because it will save you money (it may reduce your montly cost a little, but it'll take a while to make up for the cost of the device), rather buy it because it is a fun toy. It's very well implemented, looks nice, the software is great, and you can do cool stuff like connect to it from your pod.

    Fuck Honeywell. If their patents have been violated, then where are their Nest-like products? I smell another patent troll.

  2. Common technology in large HVAC systems by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Large buildings already have control systems that do this, and Honeywell manufactures many of them.

    The "Nest" device may well be mostly hype. (What is "far-field motion detection", anyway?) There's only so much you can do with input from one location and nothing but on/off control over heating and cooling.

    Compare the EcoBee, which does the same job, and probably better. EcoBee can handle remote sensors for outdoor air temperature. It measures humidity, which "Next" doesn't claim to do. It can be set up to control fans and dampers. (One of the biggest wins in HVAC management is figuring out how much air to take from outside and how much to recirculate.)

    Nest is a status symbol, not a HVAC management system. It looks cool. It creates the illusion that it's doing something "green". It probably helps a little.

  3. Here's the Trademark record - 1982 by jtara · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's the trademark listing for Magic-Stat which was issued to QuadSix Corporation of Ann Arbor, Michigan filed in February, 1982, and subsequently assigned to Honeywell Corporation. One

    http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4008:kk95v8.3.2

    (I realize the trademark has nothing to do with patents. Just using the trademark to help fix the date and origination of the "learning thermostat" idea.)

    So, it looks like Nest took 30 year old technology and created a buzz by giving it a bit of Apple shine.

    I actually had one of the original Magic-Stats, before it was sold under the Honeywell label. I was reasonably happy with it. The unique feature is that it would learn the inertia of your system, so that it would achieve the desired temperature at the time that you wanted. That, and the unique simplified user interface. e.g. you just set it to the desired temperature when it doesn't seem right, and it learns your pattern from that.

    It just amazes me how much buzz these guys got over something that was invented 30 years prior.