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Apple and Other Tech Companies Face Lawsuit Over Wireless Email Patents

i wish i was a (successful) patent troll. but it seems I'm not smart enough to come up with an idea.....:eek:

Seriously, as much as I despise patent trolls they are an unavoidable side effect of an open innovative industry. I hope we find the right balance there.
 
alent1234 said:
wasn't teknow only in the paging field and not email? i think RIM only got into email around 2001 or 2002. i remember when their only product was a texting device for teens
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It was messages, which would cover emails.
 
Kill the Patent Trolls

It is absurd that the USPO is granting patents for obvious things like this. Frankly the whole patent system needs to be killed and the trolls with it.
They are parasites.
 
pubwvj said:
It is absurd that the USPO is granting patents for obvious things like this. Frankly the whole patent system needs to be killed and the trolls with it.
They are parasites.
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Agreed. It reminds me of one of those Biotech Companies that wanted to patent the human DNA. Jeez...it already existed.
 
cere said:
It was messages, which would cover emails.
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it's different, same concept as people taking kodak's ideas and making cameras that were different than what he patented.

smtp was a defined standard in the 1980's with a lot more features and usability than paging. and it worked differently
 
UGH! This is where something needs to get fixed in our legal system!

Why wait until now? Oh.... let's see.... Millions of users already out there! Billions of dollars to be had!

These sort of patent suits suck and the lawyers that represent them should be... well... told to take a long walk off a short pier.

I hate stupid lawsuits. Costs us as consumers!
 
Durendal said:
And this is why the patent system needs to either get some really serious reform or be abolished all together. Wireless email? REALLY? Like that's not a broad and obvious patent.

The system has been abused to the point where we need to get rid of it completely.
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multi-touch screens?! Nobody can use such displays as they are PATENTED by we know whom!
 
has anyone patent "breathing" yet? I think I have an idea to become rich... :cool:

joke aside, I think some of these patents are just getting out of hand... seriously...
 
alent1234 said:
it's different, same concept as people taking kodak's ideas and making cameras that were different than what he patented.

smtp was a defined standard in the 1980's with a lot more features and usability than paging. and it worked differently
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And yet NTP didn't immediately try to use this as grounds to have it dismissed as evidence. A very broad description, of wireless transmission of messages, would indeed cover email. As you say, implementation would be different, but so, I expect, would RIM and Apple and Google's implementation be different than NTP's original concepts. If NTP's ideas were broad enough to cover modern email messages, then TekNow's could be broad enough to cover multiple types of messages sent wirelessly.
 
Xavier said:
Good lord...

If NTP had their way, no one would have wireless email
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On the contrary, they want everyone to have wireless email since they get their licensing cut.

I rooted for NTP when I heard they were going after RIM, but I had no idea it was for something so lame as this. Patents must be 'novel' which means 'new or unusual in an interesting way'. Wireless email, since personal computers can deliver email over wireless internet connections, are not novel in my mind. They weren't for RIM either. Wireless was always going to be an obvious/intuitive migration for the Internet.

Until then, I hope some judge stops all means of sending email wirelessly until this can be sorted out. For example, all personal computers should be forbade from getting email while on wireless connections. Phones should have email disabled. Also, the Internet should be shut down because a significant part of it is still transmitted by satellite or microwave links.

Once all the wireless email opportunities are shut down, then we can sort out this mess. The mess is how some company can get a patent for something so obvious. The case would obviously be focused on the uprooting and restructuring of the USPTO. With email disabled everywhere, this would be a perfect motivation for resolving this quickly.
 
if this patents are from 1990, well I guess they will hit the 20 year limit this year. I would like to know what design they have on wireless email, that makes it different than the normal email protocols.

If they have a general patent, on email over wireless, with out some technology design, then I think they do not deserve a thing.

If they have a email deliver design that works different for email, and Apple, Google , M$, then they deserve the $$$$.

I am glad that the patents have a limit in years to0. I agree with Stella and HiVolt.

If you had a great idea and did not do anything with it, then somebody comes a long later and does, after X years, then I think you should have zero claim. I know in the Pharmacy industry, it is 5 years, once a drug gets to market, then it can become generic. I think the same should be for Patents.
 
cere said:
-35 USC 102 "A person shall be entitled to a patent unless (f) he did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented"

Had the judge not left the courtroom enraged and actually listened to the explanation from David Keeney (TekNow) about the file dates, it would have clearly shown that Tom Campana "did not himself invent the subject matter sought to be patented." Invalid patent, end of case.

And no, RIM couldn't demonstrate 35 USC 103, because the judge terminated the demonstration and refused to hear any and all other information related to it. How the hell, exactly, do you expect RIM to have proven this when NTP managed to confuse and enrage the judge to the point of ignoring RIMs information on the matter?

As for "the fact that there was no evidence the teknow art ever operated prior to the priority date. (it's not enough that it was written prior to that date)", TekNow was selling "System for Automated Messages. Our first product was a simple E-Mail type messaging system. It delivered messages to a number of receiving devices such as alphanumeric pagers, fax, PC computer screen, MHS, and little thermal desktop printers. (C,DOS,Windows,Novell)" in the 80's. Again, had RIM been allowed, this evidence would have been presented.
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Rim claimed the art was 103 not 102. And the judge was briefed on it and dismissed it for multiple reasons, not just the suspicious date.
 
Another frivolous lawsuit? It took a long time to get this together. These are not phones (with the ability to transmit / receive e-mail and messages of all sorts) that just appeared overnight.
 
Can't we update the rules so that you actually have to build & sell something in order to sue other people for doing that?
 
Either these companies like Apple and Google are going to settle out of court just to shut NTP up or it will go to court and some idiotic judge will rule in NTP's favor because the judges in these districts that "favor" the patent trolls are probably just as corrupt as the lawyers themselves. I'm sure the judge is just doing what's right and he or she isn't seeing any kick backs...
 
I'm waiting for the economy to get better before I file my lawsuit against Apple. You see, I have a patent on the letter i. In fact, I would prefer everyone to start using proper trademarking and legal sign-off when using the letter i in all forms of use. Here is an example:

Hi® Steve, I®'m wri®ti®ng to you about your i®nfri®ngements on my patent of the letter i® and wi®ll settle for one tri®lli®on dollars plus all future royalti®es. Si®ncerely, Ti®mTheEnchanter.

The letter i is a registered trademark and patent of TimTheEnchanter Global Industries and cannot be use without permission of patent owner. All violations are subject to United States Criminal Code 145.289.6477.A5K.a and Inter-Galactic Penal Code /<#0(}:*@..-_^>.|\ and may result in deportation to the Penal Unit in Uranus. All right reserved.
 
Patents and trademarks are two completely different things.

TimTheEnchanter said:
I'm waiting for the economy to get better before I file my lawsuit against Apple. You see, I have a patent on the letter i. In fact, I would prefer everyone to start using proper trademarking and legal sign-off when using the letter i in all forms of use. Here is an example:

Hi® Steve, I®'m wri®ti®ng to you about your i®nfri®ngements on my patent of the letter i® and wi®ll settle for one tri®lli®on dollars plus all future royalti®es. Si®ncerely, Ti®mTheEnchanter.

The letter i is a registered trademark and patent of TimTheEnchanter Global Industries and cannot be use without permission of patent owner. All violations are subject to United States Criminal Code 145.289.6477.A5K.a and Inter-Galactic Penal Code /<#0(}:*@..-_^>.|\ and may result in deportation to the Penal Unit in Uranus. All right reserved.
Click to expand...
 
cmaier said:
Rim claimed the art was 103 not 102. And the judge was briefed on it and dismissed it for multiple reasons, not just the suspicious date.
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Perhaps he had other reasons. Most accounts from the time said that the judge allowed the demonstration. But immediately after the demo, when the NTP lawyers asserted the demo was fraudulent, the judge left the room, returned, chewed out the RIM lawyers and then summarily ruled against RIM, saying the infringed on multiple patents, then dismissed the demo and sent the jury to determine a verdict.

Doesn't sound like he had or needed additional reasons.
 
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