“Apple Inc., Dell Inc., Sony Corp. and five other technology companies were added to a lawsuit over patents covering Bluetooth, threatening their use of a wireless- communication standard that’s in millions of devices,” Jeff St.Onge and Connie Guglielmo report for Bloomberg.
“The nonprofit Washington Research Foundation sued Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia Oyj over Bluetooth in Seattle federal court in December. Apple, Dell and Sony were added as defendants March 15, along with Logitech International SA, Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, Toshiba Corp. and Plantronics Inc., court papers show,” St.Onge and Guglielmo report.
St.Onge and Guglielmo report, “The suit threatens the ability of the computer and device makers to deliver wireless capabilities to customers. The companies are accused of infringing four patents covering technology that lets users exchange data among mobile phones, personal computers and other devices without using cables.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Michael P.” for the heads up.]
“The nonprofit Washington Research Foundation” are going to be suddenly very profitable if they win.
And the winner is…………………the lawyers (again)
OK. Tomorrow we disconnect Bluetooth. Everybody, altogether now.
What next?
That’s it. We’re doomed.
And we’re taking Dell and Sony down with us.
“four patents covering technology that lets users exchange data among mobile phones, personal computers and other devices without using cables”
Including fingers, toes, noses, and other various body parts…
One of these days I’m going to enforce my copyright on ones and zeros.
A patent is good for 17 years, if Ericsson AB received a patent
dated 1990, that is 17 years, but we don’t know the month it
was issued.
Bluetooth has been available for YEARS. Why are we seeing lawsuits now? Is there no statute of limitations for this kinda thing?
@mudflapper: Bluetooth has been available for YEARS. Why are we seeing lawsuits now? Is there no statute of limitations for this kinda thing?
Well, maybe because lots of us use it now. It took a while to be in so many devices. It would have seemed pointless to sue 10 years ago.
My questions is wh include all the users in the suit? Is it really Apple’s and Sony’s responsibility to check the rights that there vendors say they have?
Ah yes, more frivolous lawsuits. I wonder how profitable Apple would be without having to defend themselves against every kook that claims they have some patent. This nonsense would end if the courts did one thing. The loser pays both parties court costs. Then, people would think twice about these cases.
Gee, and I thought that extortion was illegal.
Silly me.
The question is, who has been licensing the use of Bluetooth™ and the Bluetooth™ brand. Wouldn’t they be responsible?
This kind of crap is maddening. I guess it’s easier than working.
Who owns patent leather?
Crap, I just ate some blue jelly beans, now I have a bluetooth.
“Who owns patent leather?”
You should see my shoe collection.
Bluetooth is a crappy and insecure wireless transmission method
Only a fool would use Bluetooth or wireless for anything that they regard the security and privacy of their machine.
Even Apple takes your prviacy and security for granted.
Ever look at your Apple website cookies? Surprise, your name is there in plain language. Your computer is your name as well which you can’t change unless you reinstall the OS from scratch.
What was Apple thinking? Their OS was immune to attack?
“Ever look at your Apple website cookies? Surprise, your name is there in plain language. Your computer is your name as well which you can’t change unless you reinstall the OS from scratch”
My NAME! You mean my ACTUAL NAME! Holy cow! Give me the number of that bluetooth lawyer!
If people know that my my name is XCXXXXVACLK, then they’ll figure out where I am from…..the planet kvrrriirrrilkkerrrrl.
MDN Word: Distance…as in the the distance from Earth to kvrrriirrrilkkerrrrl is 1.2865784895 light years.
@Wise Guy: Guess what, you name is there in plain text all over your machine (address book, mail, etc.), unless an attacker has physical access to my machine they aren’t gonna read my cookies.
“Who owns patent leather?”
I do, and I am now sueing you, MDN, and all posters and advertisers on this board for copyright infringement, illegal use of trademark names, inflammatory use of a trademark, libel and slander.
Didn’t Motorola invent Bluetooth?
@WiseGuy: Funny, I can change my computer’s name in the Sharing System Preferences. No OS reinstall required.
MW: “simple”
How will lawyers ever be reined in when all the legislators are lawyers ….that’s like asking Rosie to keeps everyones hand off the pretty ladys legs ….sort of …
I think, not all, but most lawyers should be kiln-dried first so they’ll burn more evenly ….dessicated ambulance chasers make a well contolled bonfire …I love a bonfire ..and so now it’s bluetooth. These lawyers are running in a pack like marauding hyenas …listen and you can hear them laughing all the way to the bank.
My god, people might find out your name. YOUR NAME!!! And it’s right there on your driver’s license for ALL TO SEE!!! And they ask for it at t he bank. THE BANK!!! Why do they have to know my name?!
;P
Someday, everyone will know my name.
-c
Good. Then turn Bluetooth off. I don’t want it thanks.
well, your name speaks volumes, ‘not quite as wise”….
You can change your computer’s name in the system prefs, but you cannot change your “short name” in system Prefs. It generally takes an OS re-install or other hacks that may or may not change the short name in all it’s locations.
As a new Mac user, I used my first and last name during setup, and the OS gave my computer a shortname of “firstnamelastname”. i didn’t think anything of it until I started looking at my headers in email and noticed that ANY email I sent out included my computer’s shortname (ie: my WHOLE ENTIRE NAME) in the actual header. Just TRY changing that. You will have to re-install, most likely.
http://homepage.mac.com/frakes/MOSXPT/content/shortusername.html
So, no, you CANNOT change your shortname in system prefs, but nice try.
I really don’t understand why Apple, Sony, et.al. (that is to say, the companies that actually do something with new technology) don’t hire a bunch of smart lawyers to change the patent laws. It’s ridiculous that someone can have a bright idea, then just sit on it until someone with a similar idea busts their butt to develop the idea into a commercial product.
This disgusting practice is nothing new, obviously. The lightbulb was invented by Joseph Swan at least ten years before Edison introduced this invention to the world. But who was it that stayed up nights trying to find a filament material that would make the invention practical? It was Edison. Yet he lost a patent suit brought by Swan. Enough already! Somebody needs to bust the patent laws right in the chops!
You can change your short name (and everything else) in Netinfo. noob.
-c
So, ChrissyOne, if you own the patent to one’s and zero’s, does that mean you are turned on? If not, you would be ChrissyZero…
“Yet he lost a patent suit brought by Swan.”
Sheesh. What a dim bulb. So, that means Swan could socket to him with his own bright idea?
Someone just got pwn’d
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Sometime’s I wanna go where everybody knows my name. Thanks Apple.
The article says that “Bluetooth was invented by an Ericsson AB engineer in the 1990s and developed by Ericsson, Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Nokia, according to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, composed of more than 6,000 companies. Sony Ericsson is a joint venture between Sweden’s Ericsson AB and Japan’s Sony.”
Yet many of those firms are named in the suit. What is the relationship betweeen the non-profit firm and those that invented it? And what about the other 6,000 firms in the special-interest group?
And why add names later not in the original suit?
Bluetooth will simply disappear if this lawsuit is upheld and it becomes too costly or too much trouble for Apple and the other companies. Bluetooth isn’t that great, anyway, and you will see that niche filled in a hurry if Bluetooth becomes non-viable.
Washington Research Foundation is in Seattle, WA. Ring any bells? Boardmember C. Kent Carlson
is a partner in the law firm Preston, Gates & Ellis. Does “Gates” ring a bell?
The “Gates” in the firm’s name is William H. Gates, Sr., father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Preston Gates & Ellis, LLP, also known as Preston Gates, is a law firm with offices in the United States, China and Taiwan. Its main office is in the IDX Tower in Seattle, Washington. Preston Gates is ranked among the top 100 law firms in the United States by both The American Lawyer magazine and the National Law Journal, and has traditionally been considered, along with Perkins Coie, one of the two leading Seattle-based law and lobbying firms.
Is Microsoft a named defendant? Are you beginning to connect the dots?
I’m only turned on when I’m awake. And sometimes in my dreams.
-c
MW: ‘army’ (of me)
@seedavenkc
If you read a little closer you will find that CSR Plc., the british firm who manufacturer’s bluetooth chips, may have incorporated unlicensed patents into their chips which were subsequently sold to those named in the suit. It should be easy enough to determine whether this case has merit. Examine the chips.
If the case has merit, are those named in the suit liable to any greater extent than CSR? Perhaps. But only if due diligence is required by the defendants named in the suit to properly test the veracity of CSR’s claims of patent ownership PRIOR to buying and installing the chips into their products.
Those named in the suit probably went with CSR’s chips because they were cheaper. The other name-brand bluetooth chip manufacturer Broadcom, fully licensed the patents in question and while probably charges more as a result, has a vested interest in this case.
Mr. Reese: Gee, and I thought that extortion was illegal.
Silly me.
The RIAA patented extortion. The “the non-profit foundation” received a letter from the RIAA offering to cut its penalty for using extortion without its permission, from $10 million to $6 million, if it can share of the Bluetooth profits.
Another interesting connection between WRF and Microsoft, is their affiliate association with Technology Alliance whose chairman Marty Smith is a retired partner with Preston Gates & Ellis. He has advised Microsoft for over 23 years in intellectual property rights and computer law.
Technology Alliance is having a luncheon in May and guess who the guest speaker will be? None other than the chair-throwing monkeyboy himself.
I can smell Ballmer all the way from Freemont.
i feel sick… is that all that is left in the tank for the .com tech boom of the 90’s? Chasing down old patents for “lost” income on “patented” ideas? Gimme a bloody break here, where’s my old PC? I feel like vomitting on the mobo and claiming some kind of Darwin award.
PS. I hate the upper echelon world of business. A hundred times worse than politics (just look at the stock exchange).
……infringing four patents covering technology that lets users exchange data among mobile phones, personal computers and other devices without using cables…
Like two-way radio?
“i didn’t think anything of it until I started looking at my headers in email and noticed that ANY email I sent out included my computer’s shortname (ie: my WHOLE ENTIRE NAME) in the actual header”
Funny. I just emailed myself and checked the headers on the received email. I don’t see MY short name anywhere in the headers. I do see my email address several times though. Your email address wouldn’t possibly include your shortname in it, would it?
AppleGuy
SCO anyone?
@ChrissyOne
Your so damned sexy.
And funny.
And smart.
Don’t ever leave MDN!
Hey wiseguy,
The short bus called, they ran out of you.