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Yahoo Files Patent Infringement Suit Against Facebook
An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from an article over at ZD Net: "As expected, Yahoo today filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook. The online giant is claiming the social networking giant infringes on 10 of its patents. Yahoo is hoping to secure some portion of Facebook's revenues moving forward. 'Yahoo! has invested substantial resources in research and development through the years, which has resulted in numerous patented inventions of technology that other companies have licensed,' a Yahoo spokesperson told AllThingsD. 'These technologies are the foundation of our business that engages over 700 million monthly unique visitors and represent the spirit of innovation upon which Yahoo! is built. Unfortunately, the matter with Facebook remains unresolved and we are compelled to seek redress in federal court. We are confident that we will prevail.'"
The quantity of time and energy these guys spend suing each other is staggering. It is sad to see other parts of the world (Australia) following the US example in this field rather than learning from it.
Yahoo actually may have the basis for a legitimate lawsuit...
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
This is just more obvious trivial junk that should never have been given a patent in the first place.
and im sorry but im guessing someone had a patent on 'selection of high quality linkage indicators in a computer network' if they looked hard enough.
if yahoo has anything, it is a right to join the corrupt backstabbing club of big tech giants who are all shaking each other down with lawyers playing the role of 'knee-cap breaker'. its very similar to how the mafia controls a neighborhood. each 'family' has 'turf' and 'agreements' to get cuts of various businesses. and they are always fighting amongst each other and threatening to wipe each other out.
meanwhile, ordinary people are just trying to build stuff, make a small profit, and live a normal life. not die with a mountain of cocaine piled on top of our desk.
Then why not sue years ago when they had more money? Yahoo! is circling the bowl. We all know it....
Yahoo typically likes to bring suit at the time a large IPO is going on figuring that this is when a company is most likely to bend over rather than have a stain on the IPO.
They did the same thing to Google.
I'm glad that Facebook didn't knuckle under and is going to fight. Ideally the end result will be a financial loss to Yahoo.
When you have 1 in 3 students in the USA taking a major in law what did you think would happen ?
"Among those seeking a doctorate or professional degree, law was the No. 1 choice among men and women. There were nearly three times as many men and women becoming attorneys as there were earning a medical degree"
source
with all those lawyers itching to use their new found knowledge who are also in 6 digit debt to get their degree, and desperate does what desperate can, nothing clarifies the mind quite like a debt collector banging your door at 5am
well you end up with a society just like the one we see emerging, sue everybody for anything because you need to put food on your table AND pay the piper at the end of the month or he will take all you have.
so this Yahoo trial is just the tip of the iceberg, the best conclusion for any business is if you want to innovate, do it outside USA, do not sell/visit/talk to them, its safer that way.
popcorn
Suppose some entity puts all of their software patents into a pool. For the sake of argument, let's say Google and IBM get together and pool all of their software patents into a sort of "co-op". Anyone who is a member of the co-op gets to use any and all the patents in the pool, royalty free.
Then they open up membership in the co-op.
Anyone who wants can join the co-op, with the following requirements:
1) They donate their own software patents (if any) to the pool
2) They agree not to sue any other co-op member over a software patent
And the following benefits:
1) They can use any patent in the pool royalty free
2) They won't be sued by anyone else in the co-op
Here's the best part: you can be a member of the co-op even if you *don't* have patents to donate. Membership is open to anyone - engineers, lawyers, businessmen... anyone.
With the big players taking the lead (Google and IBM in our example), everyone can now charge more or pay less, based on whether the other party is a co-op member.
Engineer looking for a job? We offer higher salaries to members of the co-op.
Vendor looking to sell? We discount our rates for members of the co-op.
Everyone in the group could adjust their prices depending on whether the other party is a member. The price adjustment reflects the "cost of doing business" with a particular class of people. The same as charging higher health insurance rates for smokers, or higher car insurance rates to teenagers.
Mark Twain once wrote about a small group of riverboat captains who banded together in this way, and effectively forced everyone to join their union. Initially no outsider wanted to join, but the members all agreed *not* to work with anyone who was not also a member. Captains found it easier to join the union than turn down a work opportunity.
The co-op model would also help stifle vague and overreaching patents. If someone in the co-op is sued (by an outsider), the member can refer to similar patents from the co-op which cover the same idea. Since in theory two patents cannot cover the same idea, the member can claim that the usage falls more within the co-op description than the troll-patent description.
If people could do this and stick to their guns, we would eliminate software patents in a couple of years.
Here are links to the 10 patents discussed in the case. I made it partway through one of them before I decided to go have a beer instead. Maybe someone else has more patience.
6,907,566 Method and system for optimum placement of advertisements on a webpage
7,100,111 Method and system for optimum placement of advertisements on a webpage
7,373,599 Method and system for optimum placement of advertisements on a webpage
7,668,861 System and method to determine the validity of an interaction on a network
7,269,590 Method and system for customizing views of information associated with a social network user
7,599,935 Control for enabling a user to preview display of selected content based on another user's authorization level
7,454,509 Online playback system with community bias
5,983,227 Dynamic page generator
7,747,648 World modeling using a relationship network with communication channels to entities
7,406,501 System and method for instant messaging using an e-mail protocol
This might be stating the obvious, but it looks like Yahoo wont be around for much longer. Looking at the current state of things, one could deduce the following lifecycle for a company:
1) Found Company
2) Innovate
3) Profit
4) Rest and watch the competition overtake you while profits decrease.
5) Start suing everyone around you for patent infringement
6) Bankrupcy
Yahoo is at step 5 now.