"Patent Troll" Closes Controversial Podcast Patent Deal With SanDisk

wabrandsma writes "James Logan's patent company, Personal Audio, has closed a licensing agreement with SanDisk. The company says that now 'between a third and two thirds of all mp3 audio players' are made by companies to which its patents have been licensed, including LG, Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Blackberry and Amazon. The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to fight Personal Audio's podcasting patent at the US Patent and Trademark Office. About 30,000 dollars, was brought in earlier this year through crowdfunding to fight the case. Logan took part in a question-and-answer session here In June."

Comments

Kill it at its source

[ThatAblaze]

Patent trolls only exist because patent examiners are approving patents without any idea what a significant advancement in the state of the art actually is. Educate the examiners so they quit just approving everyone who hands them a $20,000 check.

Re:Kill it at its source

[fustakrakich]

Patent trolls exist because we have patents. The problem goes back to the very beginning of its institution.

The Only Proper Response to Patent Trolls

[__aajfby9338]

I look forward to a time when people respond to patent trolls with actual torches and pitchforks. Tar and feathers will also be acceptable.

The bogus patent in question

[oldhack]

This bit, gleaned from the linked slashdot interview, sums it up:

Can you explain? by trcooper

Can you explain, in terms I could tell the average person, how your patent is novel enough that anyone who wants to distribute audio over the internet should license it from you? I'd appreciate it if you could address how the distributions of podcasts today widely differs from downloading audio files in 1995 and how your patent help change this.

Logan: Trcooper, this is one of those of questions that could get me in a boatload of troubleâ"with my lawyer, that is. Any comments I make regarding the claims and how they are different from previous systems, can and will be used against me in court. So Iâ(TM)ll have to take a pass on this one.

Re:The bogus patent in question

[sacrabos]

Isn't part of the Patent Application being that you outline exactly why your invention is novel enough from previous systems?

Re:Patentability Originally Req'd a Physical Model

[kamapuaa]

Well to be fair, New Zealand doesn't have a software industry.
The patent system encourages innovation, it just needs to be run intelligently.

Re:Patentability Originally Req'd a Physical Model

[fnj]

The patent system encourages innovation

Bullshit.

Re:We need loser-pays for patent lawsuits

[Ambassador Kosh]

How would you deal with mega corps then? If someone took an actual invention you made and then used it themselves the odds of you winning against a megacorp is close to nil. So you could attack them and then wind up with all their billions in legal costs.

I am not saying that loser pays is entirely bad but there do need to be protections in it so that it does not simply end up bigger is immune to anything.