Google, Facebook Lose Social Network Patent Ruling | Hacker News Reader

Google, Facebook Lose Social Network Patent Ruling

reuters.com

29 pointshornokplease18 comments

Google and Facebook did not lose the case, they just failed to have the complaint dismissed outright. It will still go to trial (or settlement) but the only thing this ruling states is the the judge overseeing the case believes that there is sufficient evidence to take the case to trial and that adjudicating it is not a complete waste of the court's time.

You are being silly... Do you own the Microsoft Windows program that you are using to post on? No... Microsoft owns it because of patents. Doesn't matter that it's on your computer. You do not own it.

This is yet another example of an absolutely ridiculous patent lawsuit, where companies that lose in the marketplace sue successful ones, costing both the companies and general public money and providing a disincentive for innovation.

What can we do to prevent this from happening in the future? (preferably by making software patents go away).

If nothing else works, how about reductio ad absurdum. Let's go through recent sci-fi/academic literature, file patents for anything technologically feasible that has a high probability of hitting the marketplace in the next 5-10 years, and then troll away until Congress acts.

>reductio ad absurdum

iPhone and Android developers are being sued by a patent troll for using in-app payments [1], based on technology developed by Apple and Google, using a patent that doesn't even apply to any of the code written by the developers. [2]

To make it worse, Apple and Google each own licenses to the patent, so it's like people who own washing machines being sued over a washing machine patent that the manufacturer has already licensed.

Oh, and iPhone developers are being sued over apps that include "forms that send data to a central server" by another troll. [3] Yeah.

How much more absurd can it get? I think someone already had your idea, and they decided to turn it into a business plan.

[1] http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/05/5-links-to-help-i...

[2] http://www.macworld.com/article/160031/2011/05/apple_legal_l...

[3] http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/05/macrosolve-joins-...

Troll is Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum. That's what you are doing..... A patent on the other hand is a grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use, and sell that invention for a set period of time...You never studied in school did you?

Reductio ad absurdum has already been tried.

I don't know what will make software patents go away. If they totally ignore the US Supreme Court saying in the Bilski decision, essentially, "Ignore State Street; Follow Benson, Flook, Diehr", then whom will they pay attention to?

Furthermore, Edison did not ever sell a single light bolb. He didn't have to. He owned the patent.

Do you know what a patent is? Google and FB own many similar ones and they will sue anyone in violation of their patents..

This is another example of large corporations think they can violate anyone's Intelectual property and get away with it..

What make America GREAT is that you get to own your ideas!

Live by sword, die by the sword.

Facebook is one of the most egregious patent and trademark trolls of late. The article has no insight into what the potential ramifications are if they lose this suit, but I think a company that trolls around suing every company with the word 'book' in their name deserves a major kick in the ass. Google on the other hand seems to encounter more than their share of software patent nonsense.

Excuse me? I'm assuming you read the story, and realize Facebook is the victim of patent trolling here, and has never (no, never) used its patent portfolio offensively?

Patent trolling is only when you don't put your idea/patent into practice. Winksite went live in 2003 when FB was still in a dorm room using university servers...

Yeah, I guess they only do trademark trolling -- I tend to lump most trademark suits in the same category as software patents.

What trolling is Facebook doing? I haven't heard of any and would be interested in seeing the kinds of suits they are filing.

(Note: I consider trolling different from a company protecting the IP used to build its business, and I think most would agree with that, even if they don't support patents [which I generally don't].)

http://www.google.ca/search?q=facebook+sues

Protecting the name "facebook" is not the same thing as suing every company with either "face" or "book" in the name. You don't even see Microsoft suing every company with "micro" or "soft" in their name, because that would be ridiculous.

If you are referring to Lamebook, Facebook issued the cease and desist. Lamebook was the first to sue. It is clear that Facebook is targeting how the term is used _in relation_ to their company. Lamebook knows that.

Whether or not it's in their legal right to sue, I vehemently oppose activity of this nature, and reiterate that they absolutely deserve having the law similarly turned against them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft

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