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Eolas Sues Again: This Time, Facebook, Disney and Wal-Mart
judgecorp writes "Eolas, which claims to have patented key aspects to web browsers, is suing again, this time targeting Facebook, Disney and Wal-Mart for infringing hypertext patents. Eolas settled with Microsoft and has sold licenses to other players — but two of the four patents in this case have previously been declared invalid."
you know who.
Pretty please?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
I claim prior art to the use of the word delcared.
All your words are belong to me.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Anothe fine sample of U$A fail patent/legal system.
is that lawyers are getting paid.
Be seeing you...
Why do nerds raise $100ks on kickstarter for computer games, but not the equivalent to lobby government to repeal stupid patent laws?
It would have a much more positive effect on software development in the long run, you know...
I feel awful that I have to say this, but it makes me wish that Tim Berners-Lee would have taken out a defensive patent on the web.
Then he could slam ELOAS for all the money they have.
Or to put it more bluntly. I had it with these mother#$%@$ patent trolls on this mother%@$()$ internet!!
The reason we don't raise $100,000s to repeal foolish laws is because that's somewhere in the neighborhood of three to five orders of magnitude too low two actually have an impact on the way IP law is written in the US.
There are ~470 members of congress, all of which need to fund multi-million dollar campaigns every 2 years, and we're looking at probably a 10 year time horizon to enact real, meaningful change. At the same time, there are multiple Billion dollar a year industries which reply on patents and copyrights to protect their business model and cash flow.
$100,000 is like pissing into a hurricane.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
How can a patent for web browser functions affect companies which only serve the content? They aren't providing the technology to interpret the content (except for mobile phone apps which are a pretty small piece of the pie).
Wow, if I was going to start suing people, I don't know that I'd go for three huge corporations with billions of dollars -- they could just bury you in lawyers.
Unfortunately, TFA is a little thin on the actual patents. Though it seems likely to be yet another set of ones which were probably fairly obvious even in the early days of the web. Interesting that two of them have been invalidated.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
What these trolls depend upon is a growing list of high-profile companies who settle these lawsuits. If you are a large company, even a settlement of $100k is cheaper than the work involved in actually "fighting" the suit, and so companies pay these "nuisance lawsuits" while making sure that whatever agreement they sign makes it clear that settlement doesn't imply that they *believe* the suit (or patent) has merit.
Which is fine for the troll... they get $$ plus are able to say "Look at all these big companies who paid. If they paid us, you can bet you're going to have to", misleading people into thinking that the settlements somehow provide some measure of "validity" to their claims.
They need the big splash settlements to obtain the big payouts: lots of settlements by smaller companies.
When Eolas won the patent case against Microsoft many years ago, lots of people around here were pumping their fist in the air, happy that Microsoft had finally gotten a black-eye over their browser. I remember posting something to the effect of: "You don't actually want Eolas to win this one. If they win against Microsoft, they can win against anybody."
Today I think Slashdotters would agree with me. It's a nice change.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
They are suing over 4 patents, two of which have already been ruled invalid. Shouldn't they suffer a significant penalty for knowingly suing over an invalid patent?
Most people responding to you have assumed you are referring to Apple. If that is the case, then you are late. Eolas already sued Apple back in October 2009, and they settled August 2011.
for issuing such insane patents it the first place?
Karma: Bad
i read that years ago that wal mart fights every lawsuit, no matter how minor
in this case, i hope so
What are the patent numbers?
I've been clicking on links since the mid-90's. Surely patents around that are due to expire some time soon.
They are suing over 4 patents, two of which have already been ruled invalid. Shouldn't they suffer a significant penalty for knowingly suing over an invalid patent?
I was curious about that, too, so I just looked up the filing documents on PACER. The patents were declared invalid in the Eolas v. Google et al. trial, and Eolas has appealed that decision to the Federal Circuit (which they're allowed to do). This suit was filed with a request to stay all deadlines, pending the outcome of the Appeal in the Google suit.
Basically, this reserves Eolas' filing date for the suit, which may be important for statute of limitations issues or other issues, but it's going to sit there with no requirement for Facebook or anyone else to even respond until the other suit is done. If the Federal Circuit reverses the jury decision and finds the patents valid, then this one can go ahead, and they haven't sued over an invalid patent. If the Federal Circuit affirms the jury decision, then they can amend the complaint to remove the two invalid patents. Either way, Facebook et al don't have to even reply for a year or two.
AFAIK, with regard to most federal IP law, U.S. states are no different than private entities. The federal government is a different story, though.
You can just huff the gas.
I know I probably shouldn't feed the political trolls, but... Are you shitting me. I doubt anyone with two neurons to not-rub-together could argue that the Rs and Ds have fucked things up to a point that they're nearly beyond redemption.
And your "solution" to this is to vote for the Randroid, "let the corps do whatever they want", "slavery is legal if it's in the contract" Libertarians? Are you HIGH?
Individual claims in each patent get invalidated. It is quite possible (and typical) for a patent to have some valid claims and some invalid claims. Typically this happens when broader claims are invalidated by prior art that was not located during examination.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
Some years back, Slashdotters helped end the career of a spammer. Million of people signed the offending gentleman up for junk mail. The idiot started receiving multiple truckloads of junk mail. The cost of managing tons of garbage daily as I say, ended his career as a spammer.
There must be a way for Slashdotters to file nuisance lawsuits against patent trolls, nothing that would stand up to serious scrutiny mind you, just something that would result in about 5 million separate cases these scumbags would have to deal with individually. Figure that should piss a couple centuries of their time away.
Them that live by the sword should certainly die by it...
To let the mafia run everything.
These turds would have a bullet in the head and we would not have to pay through our nose for shit like internet service.
And cryptic comments are really easy for me! I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but after four comments I think it is OK! "Google"! Did everyone get it, like I did? If not, don't fret. We all have different gifts!
But "iHear" seems like "iPhone", and *Apple* (not Google) makes the iPhone. So, I'm not sure MatrixCubed is smart enough for MENSA. But maybe he can join the "Friends of MENSA" group, which accepts anyone (for an annual fee) who doesn't meet the MENSA standard for intelligence.
I'm surprised that people on Slashdot would even joke about suing Google. I would think Slashdot members would prefer suing Apple. :-)
He's not high, but you are a liar.
No libertarian is saying that "corporations can do whatever they want." But feel free to keep lying about this. Oh I'm sorry, it was just an exaggeration, right? Cowards hide behind exaggerations when they can't make real arguments.
Cowards hide behind ad hominem attacks when they can't make real arguments.
Fixed that for you, troll.