While I agree with the idea of patent law protecting innovation, the concept of a patent holding company is just inane. Here we have a company who's sole purpose is to harrass, coerce, and sue other companies into giving money for holding a patent on an idea. An idea that the other companies have actually made work.
It would be one thing if an entrepreneur or a small company patented the technology and was trying to sell product based upon it and were then robbed of it by a competitor who used their patented technology and pushed them out of business.

But instead this C2 company exists only to extort money from others. What a parasite! There should be laws limiting the transfer of patents to organizations that do not then exploit the technology themselves but rather seek only to bully others into paying for the priveledge of working hard and making a business successful. And the sickest thing is that these companies do not actively protect the patent until it is in such widespread use that to re-engineer the products to avoid making use of the patented technology is ruinous. A bank robber has more sruples that these folks.

Sounds like it is time I patent breathing. If people can sue for crazy stuff like this then I can patent breathing and sue the WORLD!!! :P

BN Template "patentsuits"

%comp%, [opt]a %corprank% of %comp2%,[/opt] said Thursday that it had filed suit in %state% %court% court against %defendant% alleging patent infringement. %comp%'s claims surround a patent that covers a "method and apparatus for %anything at all really%" according to the complaint.

Law firm[s] %name1%, %Name2%, %Name3%, %overflowerror%, are representing the company in the suit. Named as defendant[s] is/are %fortune500%. %TLA% is a patent licensing company, according to its profile. As of press time, none of the %num% named defendants had commented on the suit.

Never heard it said any better than that.

Perhaps mjm01010101 should patent that template?

After all, it's a process taking place on a computer! ;-)

Yeah, but he would probably have to license the use of the '%' symbol as a delimiter from someone else.

LOL@patentsuit template

Amen, mjm.

While funny, I don't think that is a BN template, but a template for struggling companies who want to make money by waiting until the technology becomes popular before filing the lawsuit. BN are just reporting the information.

I myself am exhausted with these patent holding companies that wait until a technology takes off before filing suit.

Perhaps they aren't holding out but building up a mountain of evidence and attorneys to prepare them for the onsluaght of expertise required when you take on the big boys. For example, if you sue any fortune 100 company, be prepared to get back a mountain of paperwork confirming you know what you are doing. It's serious business, it costs everyone millions minimum to do this.

Or maybe mjm01010101 already has and is waiting for someone to start using it so that he can sue them!

Without actually searching for the exact patent, I think we can probably add this to the list of ridiculous ones like "hyperlinks on CDs", "any form of online card game", "all streaming media", and "the stylized e".

Oh come the **** on! you expect me to believe that 7 separate companies are ALL in violation of copyright? NO!

I don't believe it. Maybe some company SOLD the technology to each of them...

This is so boring, why even bother.

not copyright, patent. theyre two different things

copyright is used to protect your original works
patent is used to protect your original ideas