Patent Troll Goes After Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Others

zaba writes "A company named PersonalWeb Technologies has decided to sue a host of heavy players in the tech industry, including Apple, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft and Yahoo! for patents it holds related to data processing. They have a previous suit against other big names like Amazon, Google and HP. Anyone care to guess where the company is based or where the suits were filed?" The company is also targeting GitHub, but seems to have accidentally sued Rackspace — GitHub's host — instead. Rackspace has responded, saying, "It’s apparent that the people filing the suit don’t understand the technology or the products enough to realize that Rackspace Cloud Servers and GitHub are completely different products from different companies."

Comments

Enough Already

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to think of patent trolls as no name companies that pop up just to make a quick and sleazy buck. Now I think of all of the big names like Apple and Samsung too. At this point, I say bring it on. Let all companies be destroyed in the name of "intellectual property rights" and lets start over. I'd rather we die a quick death than drag it out forever.

Re:Enough Already

[TheRealMindChild]

The problem is, with the current system, it is more reasonable to the bottom line to pay X in settlement costs vs paying your own lawyers for Y time

Re:Enough Already

[asylumx]

Interestingly enough, that's the same approach shipping companies have been taking with the pirates off the coast of Somalia. A curious analogy, don't you think?

List of their patents

[nagasrinivas]

http://www.personalweb.com/Technology.html
Enjoy!

Re:List of their patents

[TheRealMindChild]

5,978,791 - Data processing system using substantially unique identifiers to identify data items, whereby identical data items have the same identifiers -UUID
6,415,280 - Identifying and requesting data in network using identifiers which are based on contents of data - CRC Hash
6,928,442 - Enforcement and policing of licensed content using content-based identifiers - See WinAmp and Windows Media player
and so on...

Re:List of their patents

[doomtiki]

You know it is a legitimate technology firm when their website says:

We are located in East Texas, and we are developing innovative technologies and products.

There seem to be a lot of "innovative" firms located in East Texas.

Re:List of their patents

[chrismcb]

But... But... But what about this awesome, novel patent, that I am sure no one else could come up with:

Accessing Data In A Data Processing System

Re:List of their patents

[CheeseyDJ]

5,978,791 - Data processing system using substantially unique identifiers to identify data items, whereby identical data items have the same identifiers

"Substantially unique" - I love that.

I wasn't aware there were varying degrees of "unique". Maybe there's a scale:

• Not unique
• Slightly unique
• Moderately unique
• Substantially unique
• Very unique
• Completely Unique

The best part is that this potentially allows for many moderately unique patents, each patenting varying degrees of uniqueness.

My Guesses

[Talondel]

Austin. Eastern District of Texas.

High School Kids?

[Frosty Piss]

Most of their technical staff looks to be about 15 or 16...

http://www.personalweb.com/About.html

Re:High School Kids?

[viperidaenz]

They're probably the kids of the lawyers who run the company.

Re:High School Kids?

[Psychotria]

Yes, but what does age have to do with it? This guy, for example, is obviously a leader in his field.

Darren Hampton: Quality Assurance Coordinator

Darren Hampton is an eclectic fellow. Despite being risk averse, he often puts himself in a great deal of minor peril. He is PersonalWeb's Quality Assurance Coordinator, but normally lacks the qualities of a coordinated individual.

The guy bursts into laughter at the slightest provocation, which leads to a very bruised noggin as he loses control of his flailing cranial structure. The danger he poses to himself is insurmountable as he cannot find a way to escape his own person or the hilarious occurrences that seem to develop daily.

Besides laughing at things that really have no comical value, he has been known to partake in the listening of mind-blowing techno. He especially likes the parts where it goes “wob wob wob.” He also has a deep addiction to Team Fortress 2 and will likely never free himself of the game. The one thing he hates is stepping on Legos without shoes... and jerks.

If that's not a glowing review of talent and competence, I don't know what is.

Oh, and Clarissa Andrews likes dying her hair!

Let all companies be destroyed?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, then the only companies left would be the patent trolls.

Re:Let all companies be destroyed?

[mwvdlee]

Apple - love or hate them - makes products based on those patents.
So no, they are not patent trolls.
They may use borderline invalid patents in an offensive and anticompetitive way, but they are not simply trolling.

Re:Let all companies be destroyed?

[realityimpaired]

It used to be that suing was the last ditch effort of a company that had stopped innovating. When you're coming out with new product, who cares if somebody's copying last year's version?

The problem is, Apple isn't innovating any more, and their patents aren't for actual products, they're for concepts that should be considered obvious by anybody in the industry. All they have left to them are incremental updates for existing products, and anybody with their ear to the ground in technology can predict these updates before they announce them... was *anybody* surprised that the big upgrade for the iPhone 5 was a higher resolution screen and LTE radio, or that the iPad 3 was a higher resolution screen and more processing power? And if you're able to predict what's next, and you happen to be a company that's competing against them, then it's pretty easy to come up with the next version before they do, and Apple ends up caught with their pants down, as has been done with the market for 7" tablets. The end result? Apple's trying to sue everybody to prevent them from competing, because, as a company, they stopped really innovating years ago.

The same generally goes for other players in the global patent wars too, mind you... it's not that I hate Apple (though I do) that I choose them as the whipping boy, it's because they're the most obvious to make the case with. What I just said can equally be applied to Samsung, LG, or HTC in the mobile phone market, and pretty much any player in modern technology. It's been a long while since anybody came up with something that was really *new* that wasn't just a more efficient way to do what we were already doing. Even the main drivers for the smartphone market, which Apple claims to have invented (we'll pretend Palm, Sony, and Blackberry didn't already have smartphones), had been done 10 years before the iPhone it the market... downloadable apps by Palm, and mobile e-mail/calendar by Ericcson (digital PCS).

Re:Let all companies be destroyed?

[techsoldaten]

So... much... to... argue... with... there...

If you really want to argue who invented the smartphone market, it was Danger. Say all you want about Palm, but the Sidekick was the device that really proved the model for apps on mobile devices. I mean this in the sense of apps as opposed to applications, where you have over the air updates for the system. The market for smartphones would not be a tenth of what it is were that not the case. Had they not sold out to Microsoft, the smartphone world would be a very different place to day.

The OP does appear to understand what innovation is. Innovation !== features enhancements, however, which are often a natural product of ongoing R&D that make their way into a product. Apple using a retina display is a feature enhancement, Apple building one in the first place is innovation. As you said, this was Samsung.

In regards to the design of the iPad, Jonathan Ives did not have the original idea for it. There were prototype drawings from the 80s describing very similar devices. Just because Apple was able to make the push to actually build the thing and mass-market it does not really mean the company conceived of the device completely from scratch.

I mean, citing the iPad and iPhone as examples of innovation is all well and good, if we were talking about how innovative they were in 2007. It's 2012 now, where are the new products and ideas that are going to make the world more efficient and exciting than it was before? I know they have made bids to get involved in automobile manufacturing, televisions and other consumer electronics, and other verticals. Innovation in these areas would be magnificent to see.

Instead, there are no new products this year, and there is a lot of talk about reducing their line (there is still talk Mac Pros may be going away altogether in the next year or so). you look at Samsung, you see a company that is involved in every major area of consumer manufacturing. They have a strong defense business as well, and their semiconductor unit continues to keep creating new things all the time. Apple is a little too concerned about their stock price to try anything new anymore. I don't see them as capable of producing disruptive technology so long as the fundamentals of their business model discourage risk in their major product lines.

What we are seeing it not technology innovation, it's more like business model innovation.

Their first patent...

[viperidaenz]

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,978,791.PN.&OS=PN/5,978,791&RS=PN/5,978,791 They better go and sue Oracle. This describes the function of java.util.Hashtable.... hangon, that's been around since 1996 and the patent was filled in 1997.

East Texas

[Fnord666]

With any luck this will backfire since a key judge that made East Texas such a hotspot for patent infringement lawsuits retired from the US District Court last year.

This article does a pretty good job of looking at the situation in East Texas with regards to patent trials. It is an interesting read. It will be eye opening to some and a confirmation to others.

Texas Sucks

[CuteSteveJobs]

> It’s apparent that the people filing the suit don’t understand the technology or the products enough to realize that Rackspace Cloud Servers and GitHub are completely different products from different companies."

The problem is that if you are sued for patent infringement - regardless of the merits of the case - you are up for $2M in lawyers fees and court costs to defend it. Recently a judge speaking out against trolls said $3M - $5M. If you're a small company or worse - a lone developer - that will send you bankrupt. The suit will most likely be filed in a troll-friendly court district such as the East District of Texas as this case was. The judges in E.D. Texas there are notoriously pro-troll and won't dismiss even the most stupid of cases. http://www.technologyreview.com/news/405259/a-haven-for-patent-pirates/

Trolling causes a lot of damage for innovators elsewhere in the US, but it is huge source of revenue for E.D. Texas. Congressmen from these other districts need to gang up against the Texas trolls and Congressmen: http://www.house.gov/representatives/#state_tn

Re:Why?

[Patent Lover]

They have a "rocket docket" which processes patent suits more quickly than other district courts and an attorney licensed to practice in any state can practice before the court.

It will all go well

[Psychotria]

Attorney: Judge, we would like to put our QA Coordinator on the stand as an expert witness.
Judge: Darren Hampton, please take the stand.
Judge: Please describe your role at the company and your formal qualifications.
Darren: I am an eclectic fellow, but despite myself being risk averse I often put myself in a great deal of minor peril.
Judge: Please proceed.
Darren: Although I am am coordinator, I normally lack the qualities of a coordinated individual. I burst into laughter at the slightest provocation.
Judge: Understood.
Darren: *bursts out laughing*
Judge: *bashes Darren on the head with his gavel*
Darren: Sorry, sir. The danger I pose to myself is insurmountable and I cannot find a way to escape my own person or the hilarious occurrences that seem to develop daily.
Judge: Are you retarded?
Darren: I like to partake in the listening of mind-blowing techno. I especially likes the parts where it goes "wob wob wob."
Judge: Next witness please.
Darren: Wait.
Judge: Ok.
Darren: I have a deep addiction to Team Fortress 2. I also don't like stepping on Legos (sic) without shoes. /me jerks.
Judge: Next witness.
Court Dude: Sheena Walker, please take the stand.
Sheena: Oh, hai!
Judge: Sheena, please describe your experience and formal qualifications.
Sheena: I love research! Yay! My favourite holidy is St. Patricks Day and I luuuv green and light green. Like shamrocks, you know.
Judge: Continue.
Sheena: Like, yeah. What was I saying? Oh yeah! I love my Mini Schnauzer, Missy, to death! Yeah!
Sheena: I once took a picture of a sunset!
Judge: What has this got to do with the case.
Sheena: Hey, judgie. I love Big Brother. I once had a piano in my ear! I went to the, yeah, University of Texas! Yeah. I didn't finish but I think I want to one day. I have been debating this with myself.
Judge: You talk to yourself?
Sheena: No, Judgie, I debate with myself. Anyway, hey, in the meantime I am learning like lots.

I'm involved in this - providing prior art

[viewtouch]

A lawyer with a law firm defending one of these companies contacted me and visited me last week to review prior art which I have, with the hope that I can assist them and their client in invalidating one or more of these patents. Tomorrow I will be delivering running a copy of my software to the firm to allow them to closely examine it. Most of the companies which have been threatened with patent infringement lawsuits have caved in and agreed to pay the patent holders (Priceline founder Jay Walker and others) rather than attempt to defend themselves in court, however. We'll see how it plays out.