“Largely unknown patent holder LVL Patent Group late last week quietly sued much of the US cellphone business and beyond for alleged patent violations,” Electronista reports.
“It claims that the iPhone, many Android devices, Symbian, and basic feature phones as well as their carriers violate one or more of a group of four generic patents, including data transaction servers and devices for entering transactions,” Electronista reports. “Most of the patents were issued in or before 2000, but one of the device patents was only live on September 13, two days before the lawsuit was filed.”
Electronista reports, “Among the phone makers, Apple, Casio, HP, HTC, Huawei, LG, Kyocera, Motorola, Nokia, Pantech, RIM, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, and Sony Ericsson have all been accused of treading on patents. Most major US carriers have been accused themselves, including AT&T, Cricket, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon, even going so far as to include relatively low-key brands like Boost Mobile and TracFone.”
Much more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward Weber” for the heads up.]
Should be a statutory limit to patent challenges after the supposed item infringes the said patent.
Sweet Baby Jesus, is there no end to this fucking MADNESS!
The answer to your question is: No, there is no end to the madness. And the fact that the so-called legal system allows such madness to proliferate is iron-clad proof that the legal system itself is also mad.
It’s set up by politicians–i.e. lawyers. Patents involve more lawyers–e.g. at the companies filing them, at the very least. Finally, lawsuits benefit the lawyers on both sides, and ensure court systems (you guessed it, overseen by lawyer-turned-judges) are never empty.
It’s a big circle-jerk, except it’s the regular, honest, hard-working people who produce stuff of *actual* value who are fucked.
You’re a moron. The fact is most politicians are NOT lawyers. And the courts have plenty of work to keep them busy without any patent litigation suits being initiated. There’s not some specific “patent court” that needs its docket filled up. These cases are heard by regular courts, usually Federal District Courts, and most of the judges who sit on those benches did not come from patent or contract law, but from criminal or tort law backgrounds.
And who’s to say that the mobile phone industry isn’t infringing on this company’s patents? YOU?!? No thanks, I’d rather have a judge figure it out.
Our legal system was designed so that even the little guy could have access. That’s debatable now with the high cost of litigation, but that has always been the case. Some argue for a “loser pays” rule like they have in Britain, where the losing party pays for the winner’s attorneys’ fees. Pros and cons to that, too, because unless you have a slam-dunk case, who’s going to risk suing a large company only to lose and get stuck with six figures of attorneys’ fees they can’t pay?
Over half of US federal politicians have law degrees, and just under half have practiced it. While you might mean “most” technically as a simple majority, conventional use of “most” means “all but a few” which is clearly not the case with politicians in Congress.
Why is the “rocket docket” so popular in Texas? I’d heard for years it was because the jury would usually award the accuser, but more recently was told it’s also because it ISN’T swamped with other court cases so could devote more time to IP issues. If you’d like to set the record straight here I’m happy to hear it.
And re-check the chain of comments I replied to–nowhere was it about THIS particular case. I’m not against the patents, but the current system is seriously screwed up if innovative companies must hire teams of lawyers just to keep up with and respond to all this nonsense (and they STILL infringe, willingly or not). Software patents are near the worst–20 years protection for an idea, sometimes not even an implementation. That European interests tried slipping in supporting legislation through a last-minute rider in a fisheries bill in 2004, should tell everyone loud and clear that this is NOT in the public interest at all.
Congress lists 43% as lawyers, lower in the House (170 = 40%), much higher in the Senate (58 = 58%).
Among the 74 framers of the Constitution, 47% were lawyers.
Since the law must ultimately be interpreted by lawyers and judges, not us regular folk (e.g., juries) it is not surprising, for good or ill, that many people who write our laws are lawyers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States
What’s wrong? Let these numb nuts sue and get their butts kicked.
Hahahhaha good comment.
No there is no end – because as Jobs said, no one really own the Internet but along comes a fabulous idea – the iPhone it does everything you want and people are using the Internet even more… The cellphone makers were hit so hard they still can’t figure it out.
So let’s sue.
The law is an ass.
Google’s Android is so screwed!
wow. the Motherload of all lawsuits!
it’s simple:
why don’t all the attacked firms combined, counter sue LVL?! a jv law suit!
LVL would never afford an army of lawyers.
which makes its daring lawsuit, not as smart as the Trojan Horse. they’re too dumb to start this, they’ll flat-line.
talk of self-destructive behavior ; )
Probably LVL IS an army of lawyers, doing this on their own time and hoping to retire on it.
Free for all. Next you know someone will sue the citizens of Earth for breathing air.
Im working on a new patent right now that covers it.
“A process and aparatus for the conversion, processing and injection of atmospheric gases into the bloodstream of mammals”
In essence once it is granted ill be the inventor lof the lungs in your chest and i charge that your parents willfully and intentionally stole my “intellectual property” when they gave birth to you.
With the new patent reform i just gotta be the first to file and then ive got every motherf*ucker on this rock by the balls 😉