The INQUIRER. Not listening to readers for years
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Smartphone makers are in hot water
THE US International Trade Commission (ITC) has launched an investigation into patent complaints filed by Flashpoint Technology against a number of smartphone manufacturers.
The complaint alleges that Research In Motion (RIM), LG Electronics, Nokia and HTC have infringed three patents related to the digital camera functions in the devices. Flashpoint, which is based in Peterborough, New Hampshire, has asked the ITC to ban imports of the named products.
Specifically it wants importation of the Nokia 5230 Nuron, the RIM Blackberry Storm2 9550, the HTC Droid Incredible, the HTC Mytouch 3G, the LG Ally and the LG Expo GW820 banned.
It said that the smartphone makers are importing the phones without paying a patent licensing fee to Flashpoint.
The first of the three patents is No. 6,134,606, a method for controlling parameters in handheld digital cameras, issued in October 2000. Then there is patent No. 6,163,816, a method for retrieving capability parameters in an electronic imaging device, issued in December 2000, and finally patent No. 6,262,769, a system for auto-rotating a graphical user interface for managing portrait and landscape images on an image capture unit, issued in July 2001.
Flashpoint used to build digital camera technology. However the outfit stopped research and development in 2007 but continues to make money on its patents.
The next step in the ITC investigation is an evidentiary hearing in front of an administrative law judge. µ
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This patent madness will continue until the SCOTUS revisits and corrects its mistake with the Bilsky case, and updates US patent law to prevent the lucrative "patent troll" industry from negatively impacting the economy like this. The US patent office seems only too willing to issue broad patents on often ridiculously-vague applications (even those covering prior art), which are then used as anti-competitive weapons by those receiving them.
The patent system is broken, and for the good of the US (and the world's) economy, Obama needs to fix it ASAP.
for further info, see: http://www.groklaw.net