Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has begun a campaign of patent infringement lawsuits against companies ranging from YouTube and Facebook to eBay and Office Depot.
Allen’s patents were originally granted to his company, Interval Media, which shut down in 2006. The company w
“We recognize that innovation has a value, and patents are the way to protect that,” said a spokesman for Allen. When asked about the notable absence of Microsoft and Amazon from the suit,
the spokesman wrote in an email, “This is the most recent step in a long process, but it is not necessarily the end of the process.”
But do the patents themselves actually have any value? If so, why wasn’t Allen’s company able to make money on them to begin with?
The patents include 6,757,682, “Alerting Users To Items of Current Interest,” which covers suggesting items from an online store based on the content of the current page. AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, Yahoo & YouTube are all accused of infringing on this patent.
The first question which comes to mind is how this wouldn’t be considered obvious for anyone in the online selling industry? Just because something hasn’t been worked out in code already doesn’t mean other developers haven’t thought of it.
More likely, what it means is either it’s a solution for an as of yet non-existent (or at least minor) problem or it’s simply not something they’ve decided to implement (or prioritize).
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Result for: patent infringement
In May, software giant Microsoft settled with little known company VirnetX for $200 million, after the former had been accused of patent infringement.
The patents in question covered methods for establishing Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
Microsoft now licenses the technology going forward.
This week, however, VirnetX has filed similar lawsuits against other technology companies, including Apple, Cisco, NEC and Aastra. VirnetX says each of the companies is currently violating at least one of five of the company’s patents relating to network communication.
The company is seeking monetary damages and injunctions against the products.
Without the aforementioned Microsoft settlement, the company was practically dead in the water, with a reported revenue of just $43,920 for 2009.
Result for: patent infringement
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is inviting everyone who is opposed to the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA), or to provisions of ACTA (or how it is being negotiated) to support a “firm, simple declaration against ACTA.” People can sign the declaration which includes 11 demands about ACTA if it is to be implemented, or provides an alternative of abandoning ACTA entirely.
The FSF does not want to seem opposed to the Wellington Declaration however, but a post from Richard Stallman of FSF does point out some details about it that he “cannot put his name to.” New Zealand citizens held a public meeting dubbed PublicACTA to criticize a secret meeting of government representatives. The attendees published the Wellington Declaration (which you can sign), calling on the negotiators to reject several injustices suspected to appear in the controversial treaty.
Stallman however points out that while the Wellington Declaration condemns the plan for ACTA to prohibit devices that can break digital restrictions (DRM, digital handcuffs etc.), it goes ahead to suggest instead that a limited prohibition, along the lines of Article 11 of the WIPO Internet Treaty. This would result in government backing being given to certain kinds of digital handcuffs, according to Stallman, and he is concerned that to accept that much without a fight would tempt ACTA negotiators to try for “more.”
He also takes issue with the declaration’s praise of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as a “public, inclusive and transparent” forum for negotiation agreements about copyrights and other related issued. “I don’t recall seeing WIPO become a force for good in the world,” Stallman comments.
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