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Jul01

Software Patents: A Personal Perspective (Part II)

by Roy Schestowitz on July 1st, 2011 at 9:09 AM

Summary: Personal perspective on the subject of patents and software patents in particular

In [cref 50561 part 1] I mostly explained my history wrt software patents. In the news this morning I found yet more aggression with software patents meeting a barrier in Eastern Texas:

In a legal victory with potential implications for many US printers going forward, an Eastern Texas jury has ruled that Vistaprint prepress software does not infringe on patents held by New Jersey-based ColorQuick.

There are also new reports about embargo attempts against Sony and Samsung, thanks to the marvels of software patents [1, 2, 3]. Is this innovation?

Reston-based ObjectVideobizWatch ObjectVideo Latest from The Business Journals Venture Philanthropy Partners closes in on M second fund Intellivid’s assets rolled into Tyco security unitNovak Biddle’s Andrea Kaufman says venture capital is more art than science Follow this company has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission accusing Sony Corp.bizWatch Sony Corp. Latest from The Business Journals Sony team moving to Austin ‘Cars 2′ drives to top of box officeFlix Brewhouse to host sneaky grand opening — blog Follow this company , Samsung Techwin Co. and Robert Bosch GmbH, accusing them of infringing on its video analysis software patents.

According to the most important report, however, “Nortel Patents Sold For $4.5 Billion To Apple, EMC, Microsoft, RIM, Ericsson & Sony [...] And, given just how aggressive these companies have been with patents lately, you can rest assured that “license” demands will be made and there will almost certainly be lawsuits. Progress via the courtroom, apparently.”

Well, it wasn’t too difficult to see this one coming. A year ago, all that was left of Nortel was a giant patent portfolio that everyone knew would result in a bidding war. At the time, people predicted the portfolio was worth an astounding $1.1 billion. Back in April, Google made news by placing a $900 million “stalking horse” bid for the patents, which had many people shaking their heads at the size of the bid. Google had made it pretty clear that it was seeking to buy the patents to keep them from being used by others to sue and block Google. Of course, Microsoft whined and complained to the government about how unfair it would be if Google won the patents. The government was apparently unconcerned.

They are building another thicket/cartel like CPTN — a subject I covered in some of the videos below. What a travesty.

YouTube: Ramble About Software Patents and Their Harms – Part 6