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IBM Wants $167 Million From Groupon Over Alleged Patent Infringement (reuters.com)
On Monday, IBM asked a jury to award the company $167 million in a lawsuit against deals site Groupon for using patented technology without authorization. The patents involve e-commerce technology that had already been licensed to Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet for between $20 million and $50 million per company. "Most big companies have taken licenses to these patents," IBM's lawyer, John Desmarais, said. "Groupon has not. The new kid on the block refuses to take responsibility for using these inventions." Reuters reports: Groupon lawyer J. David Hadden argued that IBM was overreading the scope of its patents and claiming ownership of building blocks of the internet. "A key question for you in this case is whether these patents cover the world wide web," Hadden told jurors. "They do not and that is because IBM did not invent the world wide web."
An IBM executive is expected to testify during the two-week trial about licensing deals with technology companies like Amazon and Google, providing a rare glimpse into IBM's efforts to derive revenue from its large patent portfolio. The Armonk, New York-based company invests heavily in research and development and has secured more U.S. patents than any other company for the past 25 years.
An IBM executive is expected to testify during the two-week trial about licensing deals with technology companies like Amazon and Google, providing a rare glimpse into IBM's efforts to derive revenue from its large patent portfolio. The Armonk, New York-based company invests heavily in research and development and has secured more U.S. patents than any other company for the past 25 years.
Which will prove only that Google and Amazon didn't challenge the stupid patents, not that they are valid.
I'm sure Groupon's counsel will have thought of that though.
There's still a Groupon to sue?
Hardware patents protect the little guy.
Plenty of little guys would disagree.
Without patents, the big company, see's it and copies it, and sells it before the little guy can get off the ground.
With patents, the little guy can't afford a patent defense, is drowned in legal expenses, and is counter-sued by the big company for infringing other patents in their defensive patent portfolio.
IBM is the furthest thing in the world from a patent troll.
Need I remind....
- IBM has had the record of the most patents per year for the past 25 years, in a row
- IBM grants free access to its entire patent portfolio (again, the world's largest - see above) to initiatives like The Linux Foundation and OASIS Standards.
- IBM has used its massive patent warchest to act in the interests of Open Source and Linux many, many, many times over the years.
- IBM allowed Google to purchase some of their patents to aid in their fight against Oracle's ridiculousness that would have killed all open source Java as well as Android
In general... IBM spends a massive amount of money on R&D and for the most part, their patents are real inventions. They then either license those patents on reasonable terms to others, or hold them as defense against other patent trolls, or use them to help open technology movements.