Oxymoron of the day: Government Organisation
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US firm sues Nokia, Apple, RIM, Sony, Motorola, HTC, a total of 32 technology companies over patents
SHINY TOY VENDOR Apple and 31 other technology companies are being sued for alleged patent infringement.
Another week, another patent lawsuit in the mobile market. This time a small Texas company called HW Technology has set its law dogs on 32 technology companies. The company is targeting the mobile divisions of those companies and it could be that the HW Technology is hoping the more it sues, the more chances it has of hitting at least one.
HW Technology claimed in the lawsuit filed at the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, that 32 companies have infringed registered patent number '955. That patent covers Internet protocol mobiles with search and advertising capabilities.
The patent is "a software platform in an Internet Protocol (IP) phone having the ability to be used with different communication infrastructures such as broadband, wireless communication and Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) service".
According to Loop Insight, the list of companies lined up in HW Technology's sights includes Apple, RIM, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and HTC. HW Technology is also targeting companies that offered a channel to use the search and advertising facilities in the allegedly infringed patent. That means Google and Amazon are also in the line of fire.
Apparently, HW Technology is asking for a cease and desist order but we don't know how much it is asking for in damages. If it aims as high as Kodak's recent court filing against RIM and Apple, it could be looking for $1 billion.
Only earlier this week RIM made a deal to protect itself from future litigation by signing up with the patent holding company Intellectual Ventures. That deal gives RIM access to over 30,000 patents. µ
Tags: Hardware
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Nokia introduced IPv4/IPv6 stack in mobile phones in 2003:
http://www.nokia.com/NOKIA_COM_1/About_Nokia/Sidebars_new_concept/Nokia_firsts/Firsts.pdf
but having looked at the patent, it is predicated on "a processor containing circuitry that..." and then specifically states comments about searching etc.
well mobile phones by the likes of those mentioned contain general purpose CPU's, not ones that "contain circuitry" specifically for the purposes stated
also, surely prior art would be really easy to prove, as web enabled phones have been around for longer than this patent
yet another great example of how the US patent system is completely broken
another good point is that normally "IP Phone" means a phone or phone system that uses VoIP - not mobile phones
"the lawsuit filed at the Northern District of Texas". That's the patent trolls heaven - the courts give out rulings that tend to be highly favorable there.