More evidence the world is going into the crapper. Lawrence Lockwood has earned U.S. Patent No. 6,289,319. But in a jist, Lockwood owns the patent rights to sell anything on the internet and he is suing everybody that doesn't pay him his $5,000 license fee. The US Patent Office gave him this patent on September 11, 2001.
If you sell online, you have buy a license from his PanIP Corp. for lots of money, or you will get sued. A lot of ecommerce companys are just settling because the average patent lawsuit costs $2,000,000 to defend in Federal Court.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-...11257.story?coll=la-headlines-business-manual
This is bad for ecommerce and the internet. I don't see how most small businesses can come up with a $5,000 license fee just to sell on the internet.
It get worse:
A former CIA technology officer is bringing EBay Inc. to trial this spring, claiming that the hugely successful trading site is infringing an online auction patent he applied for in 1995 -- six months before EBay began.
Charles E. Hill & Associates, a software firm, is suing 18 e-commerce companies, including EBay, alleging that they violated its patents on an "electronic-catalog system" and a "method of updating a remote computer."
Acacia Research Corp. in Newport Beach has filed legal complaints against 27 adult entertainment Web sites, alleging that they violated its patents on "the transmission and receipt of digital audio and/or video content." The company is demanding licenses from mainstream music and movie companies too.
If you're selling online, at the most recent count there are 4,319 patents you could be violating," said David E. Martin, chief executive of M-Cam Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based risk-management firm specializing in patents. "If you also planned to advertise, receive payments for or plan shipments of your goods, you would need to be concerned about approximately 11,000."
http://youmaybenext.com/
If you sell online, you have buy a license from his PanIP Corp. for lots of money, or you will get sued. A lot of ecommerce companys are just settling because the average patent lawsuit costs $2,000,000 to defend in Federal Court.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-...11257.story?coll=la-headlines-business-manual
This is bad for ecommerce and the internet. I don't see how most small businesses can come up with a $5,000 license fee just to sell on the internet.
It get worse:
A former CIA technology officer is bringing EBay Inc. to trial this spring, claiming that the hugely successful trading site is infringing an online auction patent he applied for in 1995 -- six months before EBay began.
Charles E. Hill & Associates, a software firm, is suing 18 e-commerce companies, including EBay, alleging that they violated its patents on an "electronic-catalog system" and a "method of updating a remote computer."
Acacia Research Corp. in Newport Beach has filed legal complaints against 27 adult entertainment Web sites, alleging that they violated its patents on "the transmission and receipt of digital audio and/or video content." The company is demanding licenses from mainstream music and movie companies too.
If you're selling online, at the most recent count there are 4,319 patents you could be violating," said David E. Martin, chief executive of M-Cam Inc., an Arlington, Va.-based risk-management firm specializing in patents. "If you also planned to advertise, receive payments for or plan shipments of your goods, you would need to be concerned about approximately 11,000."
http://youmaybenext.com/
