RSS
Intellectual Ventures Patents Showing Up In More And More Lawsuits
from the patently-absurd dept
As the press is still falling for the silly story that Intellectual Ventures is some sort of benevolent invention factory, it's worth remembering that the company has yet to actually invent anything that has come to market, and while it has avoided suing anyone directly, patents from IV are showing up in more and more lawsuits of dubious nature. We first saw a "former" IV patent show up in a lawsuit a year ago. Since then, we've also seen IV "sell" patents to some of its "customers" for use in lawsuits, such as with Verizon and Vlingo.
And now they're showing up even more. Joe Mullin points us to the news that a newly formed patent hoarding company, Oasis Research, which appears to be part of the patent hoarding operation set up by big name patent-attorney-turned-patent-hoarder, John Desmaris, has sued 16 companies, including AT&T, GoDaddy and IronMountain for infringing on a former IV patent having to do with "cloud" storage and online backup. The patents in question are 5,771,354; 5,901,228; 6,411,943; and 7,080,051.
Separately, someone contacted us recently, after receiving a threat from an operation called Webvention, who is using a former IV patent 5,251,294 to claim that that the way a website links to internal pages is patented. Seriously. In looking at the details, it looks like Intellectual Ventures sold off this patent last year, and it was just recently asserted against a big list of companies, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dell, E*Trade, gamestop, Niemen Marcus, Visa, UPS and others.
As you can see, the lawsuit itself is pretty damn vague, but it seems absolutely, patently ridiculous to suggest that the way in which you link to something on a website can violate someone's patent. When will this sort of insanity end?
Intellectual Ventures, in its standard level of absolute secrecy, won't say whether or not it has any financial stake in the outcome but earlier reports have claimed that the company sometimes will sell patents with an agreement that it gets some of any licensing revenue and/or judicial awards.
For all of Intellectual Ventures talk about not suing companies and actually being an invention factory, it's looking very much like the only thing it's unleashed on the world are some amazingly wasteful patent lawsuits on ridiculously over-broad patents that are creating serious waste in the market. And, even if the company really has no part in these lawsuits, it doesn't change the fact that it's adding to the list of ridiculous patent lawsuits by letting those kinds of patents get into the hands of people who file them.
And now they're showing up even more. Joe Mullin points us to the news that a newly formed patent hoarding company, Oasis Research, which appears to be part of the patent hoarding operation set up by big name patent-attorney-turned-patent-hoarder, John Desmaris, has sued 16 companies, including AT&T, GoDaddy and IronMountain for infringing on a former IV patent having to do with "cloud" storage and online backup. The patents in question are 5,771,354; 5,901,228; 6,411,943; and 7,080,051.
Separately, someone contacted us recently, after receiving a threat from an operation called Webvention, who is using a former IV patent 5,251,294 to claim that that the way a website links to internal pages is patented. Seriously. In looking at the details, it looks like Intellectual Ventures sold off this patent last year, and it was just recently asserted against a big list of companies, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Bed Bath & Beyond, Dell, E*Trade, gamestop, Niemen Marcus, Visa, UPS and others.
Intellectual Ventures, in its standard level of absolute secrecy, won't say whether or not it has any financial stake in the outcome but earlier reports have claimed that the company sometimes will sell patents with an agreement that it gets some of any licensing revenue and/or judicial awards.
For all of Intellectual Ventures talk about not suing companies and actually being an invention factory, it's looking very much like the only thing it's unleashed on the world are some amazingly wasteful patent lawsuits on ridiculously over-broad patents that are creating serious waste in the market. And, even if the company really has no part in these lawsuits, it doesn't change the fact that it's adding to the list of ridiculous patent lawsuits by letting those kinds of patents get into the hands of people who file them.
I have a business...
To Understand The Data Move It Closer
Why and How Developers Use Mobile Payments: Infographic
I’m looking for research...
Apps, Platforms, Consumer Use
Geography Of The App Economy
I have an idea...
75 Questions To Help You Write An RFP For Website Design
App Developer Conversations: Successful Fundraising Techniques
Reader Comments (rss)
(Flattened / Threaded)
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
https://www.patentfreedom.com/research.html
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Speedy
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
"As the press is still falling for the silly story"
Is "the press" totally uninformed and notably stupider than the general populace? ... Mmm, no. After decades of data, one is forced to conclude that "the press" is knowingly corrupt and actively promote whatever agenda they're told to: an agenda set by alliance of corporations and gov't to always move toward grabbing power. Since short-term personal interests always trump the diffuse general interests (the commonwealth), most reporters sell their souls to power.
As to the topic: it's another tangle that can't be solved by reform at the margins, and as always, problem is Rich parasites looting what's left of productive society. If you haven't yet identified The Rich as the source of nearly all societal problems, you must be struggling to avoid that obvious conclusion.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
http://patentlyobvious.m-cam.com/blog/?p=160
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Interviewed there.
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
biased reporting
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Re: biased reporting
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Novartis Sues Webvention for Dec Relief
http://www.scribd.com/doc/37907581/Novartis-Cx-Ag-Web-Vent-Ion
[ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]
Add Your Comment