Innovatio Goes After Small Business' Providing WiFi, Sounds Like Another Patent Troll

It seems there are no end to patent trolls these days. The latest is a firm with 31 patents related to WiFi but which does not produce or market anything related to WiFi going around suing small business like coffee shops and hotels providing WiFi. Unlike other patent trolls, Innovatio is at least innovative in the way they sue these people. They sue for small lump sum amounts that is much cheaper than defending oneself in a court. The firm has not ruled out, coming after other WiFi users, like you and I, at home.
Geemodo: Another Patent Troll In Your WiFI Space, Innovatio

LodSys Targets More Android Developers, Adds A BlackBerry Developer As Well.

LodSys targets more Android Developers, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Likes of LodSys, known as NPE, non practicing entity or more commonly as a patent troll has sent out more notices to Android developers and this time have added a BlackBerry developer as well. Perhaps they thought with all the trouble RIM is in, they might not jump in like Apple and Google did to defend their developers. Even Novel went against LodSys.
But even the Google's invalidation request or Lodsys patent reexamination request and Apple's intervention on bealf of it's developers against LodSys are yet to bring any results. To be fair, Apple has done more for it's developers than Google. We have not come across any such information, if Google answered any of the developers questions regarding LodSys letters.
But there are people who want to help, EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation is going to hold a LodSysed BootCamp, to explain to all those developers, how deep the waters they are in and how not to drawn.
Patent Trolls suck but one need to follow the law! We are thinking of instead of developing apps, go patent some stupid things and sue everyone or sell those patents!
Read more about the letters at FOSS Patents who says that he is going to write less about troll like LodSys and concentrate on how big boys play!

NTP Wins Appeal To Reconsider Seven Invalidated Email Patents

NTP Email Patents Patent troll http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
NTP, a patent investment company, has won an appeals court ruling over the validity of it's patents.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ordered the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to reconsider findings that invalidated elements of seven NTP patents,
Court did uphold the rejection of an eighth. The seven patents under reconsideration will remain valid and enforceable during the review.

NTP uses these patents to sue Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. (T), Yahoo! Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc and other companies in infringement lawsuits.

Patent troll are alive and will kill the innovation.

Via Bloomberg

LodSys Goes On Patent Rampage, Sues Ten More Companies, Including Adidas And Best Buy.

LodSys Goes On Patent Rampage http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
LodSys have added ten more companies to the list of little App developers and the large companies like HP, Samsung and Motorola Mobility. The difference is they are suing two companies that is seeking  declaratory judgment action against LodSys through case filed by ForeSee Results in Chicago.
As usual the lawsuits are filled in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and the ten companies are
Adidas, Best Buy, Best Western, CVS Caremark, Sam's Club, Black & Decker, The Container Store, The Teaching Company, Vegas.com, and Vitamin Shoppe.

The assertions are;

1.    adidas America Inc.: "surveys on www.shopadidas.com" ('908 patent)
2.    Best Buy (BBY Solutions, Inc.): "surveys on www.bestbuy.com" ('908 patent)
3.    Best Western International, Inc.: "surveys on www.bestwestern.com" ('908 patent)
4.    CVS Caremark Corporation: "surveys on www.cvs.com" ('908 patent)
5.    Sam's Club (Sam's West, Inc.): "feedback soliciting FAQs on www.samsclub.com" ('078 patent)
6.    Black & Decker (Stanley, Black & Decker, Inc.): "feedback soliciting FAQs on  www.blackanddecker.com" ('078 patent) and "surveys on www.blackanddecker.com" ('908 patent)
7.   The Container Store, Inc.: "surveys on www.containerstore.com" ('908 patent)
8.   The Teaching Company, LLC: "surveys on www.thegreatcourses.com" ('908 patent)
9.   Vegas.com, LLC: "surveys on www.vegas.com" ('908 patent)
10.  Vitamin Shoppe, Inc.: "live interactive chat on www.vitaminshoppe.com" ('078 patent) and "surveys on www.vitamenshoppe.com" ('908 patent)

So now there are 27 companies going against LodSys, including those little App Developers. I think there will be more and it is heating up.
I also like to see some action in the front created by Macrosolve, the other Patent
FOSS Patents again have amassed the information regarding these lawsuits and could be found in this post. You will find many related documents as well as Mueller's analysis.

Apple Files Motion To Intervene Against LodSys

Apple Files Motion To Intervene Against LodSys http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

As expected, even though a bit late, Apple has stepped up to the plate and filed a motion to intervene against the proceedings against iOS app Developers that LodSys targeted.
FOSS Patents has uploaded the motion and its attachments (except for a sealed one) to this Scribd folder.
We hope that court court grants the Apple to be an intervenor, Apple already has the answer to complaint and the counterclaim filed.
We are very much interested in this development and wish that the court grants Apple's and our wish and mainly those developers who got sued. Interpreting the motion, Apple seems to backing those developers, as it stated explicitly that the sued app developers are;
"are individuals or small entities with far fewer resources than Apple and [...] lack the technical information, ability, and incentive to adequately protect Apple's rights under its license agreement."
Even though Apple is not seeking to invalidate LodSys patents, at the moment, there are others who do.
FOSS Patents has much more information on the matter and more.

LodSys Patents, All Four Of Them, Unde Invalidation Lawsuit/Attack In Illinois.

LodSys Gets An Invalidation Attack http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
ForeSee Results Inc. a A Michigan company  has filed a declaratory judgment suit against Lodsys's four patents with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in behalf of it's clients, which include Adidas, Bestbuy and WE Energie.
The reason and the idea of filing the case in Illinois seem to be wise, according to experts on the matter. One of the reasons given was

"Upon information and belief, this Court has personal jurisdiction over Lodsys because Lodsys' Chief Executive Officer and sole employee resides in, and conducts business from, this Judicial District."

Any which way I hope this will work out for the better. If this works out in time, perhaps those little app developers could ask for a stay pending these lawsuits. You can read more about this case and other counter cases against LodSys at FOSS Patents.

MacroSlove Is On The Patent Lawsuit March And Sues 20 More Companies.

MacroSlove Is On The Patent Lawsuit March http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
I really do not like patents, even the well formed and better and acceptable ones.  But Patent sharks or trolls like MacroSlove, LodSys, I really do not like.
MacroSolve  sued ten companies, for violating / infringing their electronic questionnaire (i.e., forms) patent, in two separate instances.
This time Macrosolve has selected another 20 companies to sue and done so in Troll friendly Eastern District of Texas.
FOSS Patents cover the report very well and I invite you to visit the blog to read the article. But I found the following to be nice. So if you know your patents, here is an opportunity to prove yourself and bag $5000.

Article One Partners (a patent-related crowd sourcing company) announced a bounty of $5,000 for invalidating MacroSolve's patent-in-suit. I think Article One Partners does some good stuff, and I really hope MacroSolve's patent will be invalidated.

FOSS Patents

Apple To Lodsys, "Withdraw Patent Claims Against Our Developers"!

Apple  Lodsys iOS developers http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Not many times I take my hat off for Apple but today is one of those days. Apple has notified Lodsys via email and a letter to leave Apple's developers alone. That the license Apple obtained, covers all it's developers.
Patent trolls has been out looking for easy pickings like small app developers. I hope other big boys too wake up and come forward, like apple did.

Lodsys’s threatened claims are barred by the doctrines of patent exhaustion and first sale. As the Supreme Court has made clear, “[t]he authorized sale of an article that substantially embodies a patent exhausts the patent holder’s rights and prevents the patent holder from invoking patent law to control postsale use of the article.” Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Elecs., Inc., 553 U.S. 617 (2008).

Therefore, Apple requests that Lodsys immediately withdraw all notice letters sent to Apple App Makers and cease its false assertions that the App Makers’ use of licensed Apple products and services in any way constitute infringement of any Lodsys patent.

 I do not think it will end here but I can bet that iPad2, I have not bought yet, Apple will prevail.
Crunchgear has the complete letter from Apple

If Lodsys Was Bad, Macrosolve Is Worst! Sues Little App Developers First, Ask Questions Later.

MacroSolve is nastier that Lodsys http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
If you thought Lodsys was a bad patent troll, it seems MacroSolve is worst, from the way they attack and the patent itself. I like to see how the community respond to this. Microsolve seem to sue first and ask questions later with their broad patent. Every patent I see, makes me wonder what type of morons man stations at USPTO. I hope enough people will work together to get this patent invalidated, electronic forms and data exchange over the internet is as old as the WWW itself. I see every web page as a electronic form; you type an address into your browser and you are provided with data and response.
According to the FOSS Patents of Florian Mueller (and he has a better write up as well);

In terms of lending itself to incredibly broad interpretations and infringement allegations, MacroSolve's patent-in-suit is similarly dangerous as Lodsys's in-app upgrade patent. MacroSolve is suing companies over U.S. Patent No. 7,822,816 on a "system and method for data management", "including the steps of: creating a questionnaire; transmitting the questionnaire to a remote computer; executing the questionnaire in the remote computer to prompt a user for responses to questions of the questionnaire; transmitting the responses to a sever via a network; making the responses available on the Web." In other words, anyone who distributes electronic forms via the Internet or to mobile devices and then collects and evaluates the answers could be accused of infringing the patent.

I really hope people will come together and fight this unbelievable patent. I agree with Florian, hoping that Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM get together and thwart this nonsense.
FOSS Patents

Lodsys Says It Is Right To Target And Sue iOS Developers On "in-app" Purchase Button.

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Lodsys launched a patent battle against iOS developers over their use of in-app purchases is defending their practice saying that it is protecting and trying to get paid for the innovations.

So what does this patent cover? Aparently if you have a free app with an "upgrade" button to jump from free to full version, you are in the cross hairs. Like Computer LogicX;

"Our app, Mix & Mash, has the common model of a limited free, lite, version and a full version that contains all the features. We were told that the button that users click on to upgrade the app, or rather link to the full version on the app store was in breach of US patent no 7222078," said Computer LogicX's Rob Gloess. "We couldn't believe it, the upgrade button!?!"

But the problem is even if Computer Logix and others want to deal with the problem, they can't due to the iOS development agreement with Apple, developers are forbidden from entering in to a contract with other companies without Apple's explicit permission.
So for now they have contacted Apple.
After all the negative press and the like, through some blog posts, Lodsys brings some convaulted argument saying that it is right to sue, providing following analogy;

"It is the owner of the hotel who is responsible for the overall service (value proposition) that guests pay for, not the owner of the land that the hotel may be leasing, not the travel agent that sold the reservation, not the manufacturer of tools such as hammers, nor the provider of materials such as nails or steel beams, which may be used in building the hotel; nor is it the outsourced linen washing service or the architect of the building who is responsible," Lodsys wrote on its blog. "Lodsys' patent portfolio is being used as a part of an overall solution and we are seeking to be paid for the use of patent rights by the accountable party."

That’s like saying a hotel owner should pay royalties based on a patent for hammers used in the construction of the hotel, according to Tidbits.
While I dislike patent trolls, I have no legal knowledge of any of these things. Hope Apple's legal team not be cowards in this end.

Patent Law Suit Against Skype.

#Patent #LawSuit Against #Skype http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Just as Skype is picking up pieces from the recent massive Skype service outage, (Perhaps leading more people are looking to uninstall Skype, what the use of it if you could not send that lovely X-MAS message.), a company Gradient Enterprises, known to be a patent troll has filled a patent infringing suit against Skype in US courts.
The trolls are basically telling that they invented the network monitoring to which USPTO in it's wisdom granted the patent this year (the patent was filed in 2004). The U.S. patent no. 7,669,207, “METHOD FOR DETECTING, REPORTING AND RESPONDING TO NETWORK NODE-LEVEL EVENTS AND A SYSTEM THEREOF” Hopefully something good will come out of this law suite, for all of us.
The skype supernode network, which we have been advising and telling "how to be or not to be a Skype Supernode", so Skype need to be a supernode and get it's lawyer gears up and fight.
via TechCrunch

Did Verizon Pay $350 Million To Patent Lenders, Intellectual Ventures To Fight TiVo?

Verizon Pay Intellectual Ventures snapvoip.blogspot.com
The Law.com is reporting that Verizon worked with a large and secretive patent collecting horde known as Intellectual Ventures to play cards against Tivo. Tivo sued Verizon earlier for infringing one of it's patents.
Verizon Communications has agreed to pay Intellectual Ventures (IV) as much as $350 million for the deal.(The $350 million Verizon deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2008. Merino confirmed on Thursday that Verizon is a member of IV.)
I think we are set to see a patent war (Techdirt has a collection to show it), You can add Intellectual Ventures as an arms dealer in this war. IV is employing patent trolls to launch and fight it's lawsuits, according to the law.com
My next phone will not come from Verizon. You too can protest about this patent war, choice is yours.

Federal Appeals Court Sides With Skype On Patent Case By Acacia Research's Peer Communications.

VoIP Patents snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss patent claims against Skype related to uniform network technology filed by Peer Communications, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation,. 
Acacia Research’s subsidiaries acquire, develop, license and enforce patents.I call these firms Patent Trolls

They filed the patent case in August 2006 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The court ruled in favor of Skype and then the case then went on to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Hope skype will have same results with othe Skype law suits.

Techcrunch