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Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'
- sukuriant 15y agoWhat is this patent actually for? I was looking up wifi, and the precursor to 802.11 came out in '91. That's well over 17 years ago.
- greatreorx 15y agoUS Patent 6714559 is one they sued several hotels over. It was filed in 2001 but was a string of 6 continuations of a patent filed November, 1991.
- pavel_lishin 15y ago> While its initial lawsuits against coffee shops and restaurants did focus on the central corporations, with the hotels, Innovatio appears to be focusing on individual franchisees. Yes, the small businesses who own individual hotels and probably have no idea how to deal with a patent infringement lawsuit -- all because they dared to offer WiFi somewhere in their hotels. To make it "easy" of course, Innovatio's lawyers will let them settle for between $2,300 and $5,000. In almost every case, that's going to be cheaper than hiring a lawyer to just get started dealing with this -- which I'm sure is exactly what Innovatio intends. Isn't this precisely the sort of thing that can be forwarded to corporate? Someone who owns a Motel 6 would surely expect the corporation to help them with this, no?
- colanderman 15y agoYa but your local B&B can't deal with this. They need to mobilize now and pool together to buy good legal defense.
- pavel_lishin 15y agoI sort of imagine that the large chains would smack these trolls down pretty hard. Hilton and Marriott and Starbucks aren't exactly mom-and-pop.
- steve-howard 15y agoWhich is why, I imagine, they'll either stay far, far away from the biggest players (Caribou is several orders of magnitude smaller than Starbucks) and just harass companies too small to take a stand. The system works again!
- mrspandex 15y agoOriginal article: http://patentexaminer.org/2011/09/innovatios-infringement-suit-rampage-expands-to-corporate-hotels/ http://patentexaminer.org/2011/09/innovatios-infringement-su...
- mrspandex 15y agoI really hope they do start suing individuals. Congressmen, and judges specifically.
- kylec 15y agoPatent trolls may be evil, but they're not stupid. The best we can hope for is for them to sue a close friend of a congressman or judge.
- saalweachter 15y agoMaybe not stupid, but I think their hubris is steadily growing. At some point a patent troll is going to fly too high and set fire to the entire business model.
- TeHCrAzY 15y agoI wonder if a possible defense would be to intentionally trigger some political response via some patent trolling of your own.
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoDang, this is a REALLY good idea. Get a whole slew of companies to combine patents and start suing "influential" people. Call it lobbying with teeth. The EFF could be the "troll" and could take the extras as contributions.
- fleitz 15y agoIt's nice to see that Innovatio IP is focused democratizing the opportunity to license their patents. Patent trolling isn't just for the Fortune 500 anymore.
- throwaway0815 15y agoLook who's talking: a patent troll himself. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3058876 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3058876
- fleitz 15y agoHave you considered law school? Your insights into the actionability of patent applications would be highly informative to the majority of legal scholars and practicing lawyers.
- Vivtek 15y agoSurely this?
- diego_moita 15y agoThis is very nice! Politicians will only solve a problem after it becomes a calamity. If the problem gets bad enough, they might start paying attention.
- fleitz 15y agoI thought politicians just made things worse after problems become calamities. The calamity just alerts them to the fact that there is money to be made being part of the problem. Watch for campaign contributions to start flowing before these companies start suing regular people.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Astrohacker 15y agoPoliticians created the problem by creating IP laws. If they "solve" it, they will undoubtedly just introduce some new problem.
- MartinCron 15y agoThat's a really cynical view, isn't it? Implying that the people, through their democratically elected governments, can't ever improve upon things that have come before.
- colinhowe 15y agoDoes anyone know what these patents claim to cover? "wifi" seems a bit broad
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- colinhowe 15y agoClearly invalid. Prior use dates back to X BC when gestures by cavemen were used. [Edit] Or are they going to be chasing anyone that uses light in some fashion?
- skymt 15y agoHere's one of their suits: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fia700405.us.archive.org%2F3%2Fitems%2Fgov.uscourts.ilnd.253349%2Fgov.uscourts.ilnd.253349.1.0.pdf https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fia700405.us.... I don't know enough about the details of wifi to say whether the patents in question actually apply, but it seems plausible. Here are all the patents listed in the suit: http://www.google.com/patents?id=zi8SAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=zi8SAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=0W-qAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=0W-qAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=89fGAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=89fGAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=rlHHAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=rlHHAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=HQwgAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=HQwgAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=i9UYAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=i9UYAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=Uz8JAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=Uz8JAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=f6mwAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=f6mwAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=YxQcAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=YxQcAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=unMYAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=unMYAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=yPcOAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=yPcOAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=zDQSAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=zDQSAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=Bkh4AAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=Bkh4AAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=vfnOAAAAEBAJ http://www.google.com/patents?id=vfnOAAAAEBAJ
- octopus 15y agoI'm not a lawyer, so my question is simple - say that you receive a citation from Innovation and you simply ignore this. What then ? They will actually take you to court ?
- jcromartie 15y agoThis is exactly what I have been wondering. The case has no merit: they can't sue me for buying a Linksys router, can they?
- mcherm 15y agoThe way the US legal system works, if you are sued then the plaintiff and you go to the court and make your arguments. If you don't show up, then they automatically win all arguments they make. Even if the argument is wrong. So you automatically lose, and then it moves to the collections stage. tl;dr; Yes, they can sue you for buying a router. And win, if your high-priced lawyer doesn't show up in court on the appointed day.
- dctoedt 15y agoA couple of things: 1. If you get sued and don't show up, the judge might or might not enter a default judgment. Think of a lawsuit as a road rally. The plaintiff has to hit a number of checkpoints. In federal court, one of the first checkpoints is that the complaint---that is, the plaintiff's formal statement of its claim---must allege enough facts to set out a plausible case entitling the plaintiff to relief. (This is the Twombly/Iqbal standard established by the Supreme Court a couple of years ago.) Even if the defendant doesn't show up, usually the judge and his or her law clerk will still read the complaint, to see if it passes the smell test, before granting a default judgment. 2. They can sue you for buying a router, but under section 2-312(2) and (3) of the Uniform Commercial Code [1], absent a proper warranty disclaimer you would normally be able to pass the buck to the seller, by filing a cross-claim for breach of the implied warranty of noninfringement. Of course, that too would require paying a lawyer, unless the seller stepped up and voluntarily assumed the defense of the infringement suit (which is not uncommon; vendors want to stay on customers' good side). [1] http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/article2.htm#s2-312 http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/article2.htm#s2-312
- sliverstorm 15y agoI wouldn't think they could ever win anything. One of the rules with patents is you can't just kick back and wait for your competitor's product to grow and sue 10 years later. Considering WiFi is almost 20 years old, and has practically surpassed 'ubiquity', I'd say that ship sailed.
- mcherm 15y agoThat's the beauty of the scheme. They don't HAVE to win anything. They threaten to sue for $2,000 to $5,000 which is less than the cost of hiring a lawyer to defend. 98% of the people threatened pay up. Some miniscule percentage are incredibly cussed individuals who are willing to spend thousands of dollars just to be right... maybe they'll lose those cases. It doesn't matter: they're still making huge amounts of money. The only threat to the scheme is having your lawyers be sanctioned for unprofessional conduct. If there was NOTHING behind the threat, this would be a real possibility (like, say, if you tried this scheme when you didn't even HAVE a patent). But as long as it's a plausible case, the threat works and it's highly profitable.
- daemin 15y agoIt makes me wonder how this is not extortion? Pay up or we'll make your life miserable and/or more expensive.
- beagle3 15y agoNever heard of that rule. Perhaps you are confusing with trademarks, which you must defend? Or you are confused about the damages - you can't collect damages on anything that happened before you told the victim "you are infringing, now stop or pay me $XXX". But you definitely can collect from that point on (triple damages, if willful infringement is established)
- sliverstorm 15y agoGah, you're right, I was thinking of trademarks. I need to stop mixing trademarks, patents and copyright up in my head.
- crizCraig 15y agoThe patent is from 2004. http://www.google.com/patents?id=zi8SAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.google.com/patents?id=zi8SAAAAEBAJ&printsec=a... I hope their greed gets the best of them. Here's a poll I created to get general feedback on this subject. It's so infuriating to me, but a lot of people seem to be indifferent on the subject of patents: http://www.wepolls.com/p/3363896/ http://www.wepolls.com/p/3363896/
- machrider 15y agoIf they applied for the patent in 2001, how can they possibly sue users of wifi? 802.11 has been around longer than that.
- caf 15y agoIt's possible that the patent(s) are only alleged to apply to 802.11g and/or 802.11n implementations. At least one of the patents appears to relate to MIMO, which would apply only to 802.11n.
- Bud 15y agoLeeches. Someone should destroy these folks. Legally and peacefully, of course. But they must be destroyed.
- beedogs 15y agoI'd honestly prefer someone did it with a MOAB at this point.
- burgerbrain 15y agoI'm currently finding myself question my own disapproval of capital punishment. Every single one of the board members of this company could be put to an incredibly painful death by lethal injection and I just might bake a cake.
- PakG1 15y agoYou know that death by lethal injection is actually not painful? Not that I support your hyperbole (if it is hyperbole), just clarifying the facts.
- radu_floricica 15y agoOccasionally it is. I remember there have been instances where the sedative in the cocktail didn't work, but the paralyzing and killing agent did. Wasn't obvious from the outside, but it must have been a pretty awful death...
- knorby 15y agoIt is meant to be a bit painful in all circumstances. It isn't a pleasant way to die, but it doesn't look all that bad to watch, which is why it is used. Pain and trauma free measures like nitrogen asphyxiation aren't used for that reason; pro-death penalty advocates want to keep it painful.
- burgerbrain 15y agoOf course it is, that's why they like to use it. It's the perfect crime really, paralyze the guy so he can't protest then dump salt into his heart. If they wanted it to be painless, they'd just throw in more of the barbiturate, which they're using already anyway. There is a reason we kill animals like that. Or, as another of your respondents pointed out, nitrogen asphyxiation. That one is so impossible to mess up it's absurd.
- noonespecial 15y agoHams have been doing packet radio since the 70's in earnest and it's been around far longer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_radio There is clearly prior art. When you make this big a nuisance of yourself, clearly exploiting the system at society's expense, you should be permanently disbarred. You are a clear and present danger to the continued operation of the justice system. Edit: Might a flood of complaints to the bar association do some good here?
- caf 15y agoThe existence of packet radio doesn't necessarily constitute prior art. The patents are far more likely to be on certain very narrowly defined processes that are arguably implemented in a WiFi system than on a very broad field like "digital communication over radio". If the hams didn't use the particular techniques at issue, then that wouldn't constitute prior art. You really need to read the specific claims in the patents themselves to figure out how to invalidate or avoid the patents.
- redthrowaway 15y agoSay what you will about the trolls; these guys have it figured out. They're targeting people with enough cash to make it go away, but not enough to mount a proper defence. Prior art doesn't enter the picture, as the trolls' targets are unlikely to retain counsel. When it costs as much to retain a lawyer as it does to make the issue go away, it's perfectly rational for the small business owner to pay up and move on. Tragedy of the commons at its finest. It's cynical, reprehensible, and evil, but it's a pretty solid business model.
- skrebbel 15y agoAn acquaintance of mine goes by bars, small stores and coffee shops in his town. He tells them that he knows the neighbourhood pretty well, and that for the low, low fee of $400 a month, he can make sure that their store doesn't burn down or get trashed. It's cynical, reprehensible, and evil, but it's a pretty solid business model.
- felipemnoa 15y agoAfter getting sued a good course of action would be to sue the manufacturer for loses incurred. At least that would get their attention. Somebody could start a class action lawsuit agains the manufacturer.
- tjr 15y agoThey should be suing the manufacturers in the first place. Even if we were to assume for a moment that this patent has any validity whatsoever, it would not be the users of the wireless router than owe them a royalty payment, but the router manufacturers. And I seriously doubt that a fair royalty on a single router (such as what you might find in one of these small coffeeshops that they are suing) is in the thousands of dollars.
- felipemnoa 15y agoI know, you know, the manufactures know, the lawyers know, but unfortunately the lawyers do not care. They just want to make easy money. This might be a good way to shift the pain to the manufactures.
- caf 15y agoWhy? It's not just the implementation of a patented idea that's protected; it's also the use.
- danssig 15y agoDon't consumers have some protection here? I mean, they probably bought the wifi at a common store. You don't normally walk out of Walmart with a box containing a product you expect to not legally be able to use.
- caf 15y agoLegally I believe that's an issue between the consumer and the merchant and/or manufacturer.
- waterhouse 15y agoThe book "Against Intellectual Monopoly" is highly recommended reading for the question of patents (and other intellectual property). The authors make a mostly empirical survey of the effects of intellectual property laws and of their absence in a wide range of industries, and conclude that their effect is a stifling rather than an encouragement of innovation. I think it's especially appropriate because, while my own opinion on the issue comes from moral reasoning (and it's generally frustrating to try to argue that side), this book presents a wealth of stories and statistics that are just plain interesting to anyone who cares about the issue. http://www.dklevine.com/papers/imbookfinalall.pdf http://www.dklevine.com/papers/imbookfinalall.pdf
- kprobst 15y agoIntellectual property and patents are not the problem, the problem is the broken system around them that allows these types of abuses.
- Jach 15y agoDid you even read some of the book before responding?
- waterhouse 15y agoThe book would disagree with you there. (I could close with that bald assertion, but I won't.) Its basic thrust is that the patent system is "broken" to the extent that it does what it's designed to do: grant to an inventor a time-limited privilege to restrict his competitors so that he can earn monopoly profits that will reward him for his invention. The book opens with the story of James Watt. Watt made a series of improvements to the design of a steam engine and obtained a patent, which he used to interfere with his competition. In particular, he used the legal system to crush Jonathan Hornblower and his superior engine design; the rest of his competitors had made further improvements, but simply waited for Watt's patent to expire (which had been extended to a 32-year period) before putting them into production. Watt himself was forced to use a technically inferior design element in his engines for some years to avoid infringing on someone else's patent. When Watt's patents finally expired and his competitors could freely enter the market, the number of steam engines being produced and the rate at which their efficiency improved both exploded; furthermore, Watt's company continued to increase production and make a profit for years despite the disappearance of the patent protection. It seems clear that the overall effect of Watt's patent protection was to greatly slow down both the development and the wide-scale adoption of improved steam engines--and, as a footnote, that it may not even have been necessary to ensure that Watt made a profit. Note that Watt was using the patent system exactly as it had been intended. In the book, we see this happening over and over in detail and across a wide range of industries.
- SODaniel 15y agoGood luck with that one Trolls.
- pyrotechnick 15y agoIt's about time the CSIRO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Scientific_and_Industrial_Research_Organisation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Scientific_and_Ind...) got some money for their invention.
- whatusername 15y agoI have seen a few US writers attempt to call CSIRO a patent troll. Somewhat amusing. This article isn't talking about the CSIRO patent though.
- mkjones 15y agoIt sounds like they're going after small business owners individually, so not necessarily "any old joe." Still, this gives me hope given how hot small businesses are in the current political climate. Perhaps targeting one or two of the wrong (read: noisy and politically-connected) owners will result in an outcome at least slightly positive for patent reform?
- plink 15y agoDo the descendants of Joseph Guillotin still hold the patent on his invention? I fancy a scenario unfolding in today's environment that might vastly enrich his heirs.
- tlogan 15y agoThis is actually a very good development. This will help that even general public start understanding "patent troll" problem which, in turn, will get some ears in in Washington. I hope that more and more opportunistic lawyers join the "patent troll" bandwagon. Eventually, some of them will not say "wont sue individuals" because they will understand that changes in IP laws are going to happen soon: make money now or never (very similar to what was happening just before the housing crash of 2008). Then the politicians will act. Hopefully, giving bailouts and not doing reforms will not work for this issue. Is there anything we can do to speed up this process?
- MrUnknown 15y agoWhile I hate what you are saying, I completely agree with it.
- tjmc 15y agoOf course - only sue politicians, the media and anyone else with political influence. Give them 2 options: 1. Pay - where all proceeds will be used to acquire more frivolous patents and lawyers to sue them again 2. Change the law to ban all software patents
- DanBC 15y agoSomeone needs to set up a Patent Troll company and patent a bunch of processes for political methods / action / campaigning / etc. Then start trolling politicians.