Nokia Asks Court To Block RIM Products For Violating Patent Agreement 52
itwbennett writes "The ITworld article reads: 'Nokia has asked a California court to enforce an arbitration award that would prevent Research In Motion from selling products with wireless LAN capabilities until the companies can agree on patent royalty rates. Nokia and RIM both declined to comment on Nokia's request, a copy of which was obtained by IDG News Service, but such a filing is typically made after two parties settle a dispute through arbitration but one party does not follow through on the agreement.'"
Also from the article: "The patents in question are U.S. patents 5,479,476, which covers user-adjustable modes for phones; 5,845,219, which covers call alert during silent mode; 6,049,796, which covers real-time search on a personal digital assistant; 6,055,439, which covers a cellphone user interface; 6,253,075, which covers call rejection; and 6,427,078, which covers a small, handheld workstation."
This is idiotic (Score:5, Insightful)
These patents are round-corner-grade stupid.
This makes me sick (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This makes me sick (Score:5, Funny)
Too late:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn965-wheel-patented-in-australia.html [newscientist.com]
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Not a real patent, just a "registration" (Score:2)
Too late:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn965-wheel-patented-in-australia.html [newscientist.com]
It's not a patent as we'd think of them, but just a registration that says "you filed these papers on this date". They're never examined and have no presumption of patentability. Unlike examination systems, it actually really is a literal rubber stamp.
I have patented breathing. (Score:5, Informative)
Patent # 6,742,087: "Oxidative process for exchange of atmosphere across a membrane."
You all owe me everything you've ever earned.
This patent thing is getting to the silly point. The original idea was that by making some ideas owned by certain parties, you would force others to innovate around them. But that doesn't really apply when we're talking about a standard (Wi-Fi) on a standard type of device (PDA).
At that point, we're just holding ourselves back.
Re:I have patented breathing. (Score:5, Insightful)
I couldn't agree more. We've had variants of 802 for decades (it's ethernet basically), and 802.11 since 1997 or so.
To me this sounds like so many patents which seem to read "a system for doing something well known, but with a computer". Connecting a device to a network isn't exactly anything new ... having a hand-held device connect to a wifi network is something which is pretty obvious by now.
Does Nokia try to sue laptop makers who connect to wifi? Or does some how "with a cell phone" magically make this an innovation?
All tablets I've ever seen can connect to wifi, and some of those can also use cell signals as well. Does Nokia sue them? What is the cutoff point at which adding wifi to a new device ceases to be an innovation, and becomes something obvious?
This is really stupid.
One way to achieve this. (Score:2)
I don't know. Maybe this is what we should ask our courts and congresscritters to decide?
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Well, since the congresscritters (which Finland may or may not have) will do whatever the lobbyists pay them to do ... good luck with that.
With the head of the USPTO saying this whole mess is working fine [slashdot.org] ... I just don't see this insanity getting fixed anytime soon.
I'm bet if someone came to market with a dildo that was wifi enabled, someone would sue them for patent infringement -- despite both dildos and wifi being p
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Inventing a wireless network may be patentable.
Doing something wirelessly that is already done over wire networks should not be.
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Patent # 6,742,087: "Oxidative process for exchange of atmosphere across a membrane."
You all owe me everything you've ever earned.
Well, that depends entirely on the claims. What exactly is the "oxidative process" you've patented, and what part of the process would not be obvious to someone skilled in the art of biochemistry?
This patent thing is getting to the silly point. The original idea was that by making some ideas owned by certain parties, you would force others to innovate around them.
No, the original idea was to create an economic incentive to solve one's own design problems, rather than just waiting for someone else to do the hard work, then copying their result cheaply.
In the grand Slashdot tradition of bad analogies, consider a school where cheating on exams is forbidden, but students are al
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At that point, we're just holding ourselves back.
That IS the purpose of patents. They exist only to prevent others from innovating based on generally available ideas. Or at least to prevent innovation except once every 20 years (in the US).
Sheesh, get with the program (not that you have a choice, anyway)!
Two bald men... (Score:5, Funny)
...fighting over a comb
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The fight's over. RIM lost
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/28/us-nokia-rim-idUKBRE8AR08320121128 [reuters.com] [reuters.com]
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Well, that's OK .. they can always apply to a US court and try to get them to tell the Swedes they're not allowed to enforce that.
I seem to recall that happening between Apple and Samsung.
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Do you mean apply in a Canadian court (RIM is Canadian) to tell the Finns (Nokia is based in FInland) they're not allowed to enforce that?
Not really (Score:3)
Patent wars are increasingly a sign that the ideas fountain is drying up. Exactly like water wars...fight over old or weak patents, because we are not expecting to get many new ones.
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Microsoft told Elop to abandon Qt because it was the choice of open source hippies.
RIM adopts Qt for BB10, so MS tells Elop to sue RIM.
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Yeah, my first thought was that Nokia had somehow patented "a method of using stupid managerial decisions for falling into obscurity with mobile devices".
Today RIM, Tomorrow Android. (Score:2)
Android will surely be next.
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Nokia Suing RIM? (Score:5, Insightful)
So is the point here just to funnel what little future these companies have into their lawyers pockets?
If you are circling the drain spending all your income on lawsuits seems unwise.
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Sadly, not if your lawyers can get your royalties in perpetuity.
This is a desperate act, but if it works, it gets them another revenue stream (assuming RIM doesn't keel over).
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Microsoft using a has-been company for a proxy war? Sounds SCOish.
Just ask The SCO Group about that one (Score:2)
oh right you can't
legal tip when the guys on the other side of the table are nicknamed MOFO and Nazgul RUN NOW!!
Beggars Suing Beggars (Score:1)
This really sounds like a case of one beggar suing another beggar over the leftover scraps of already consumed rats. You know a company is almost on its last legs when it resorts to suing another company also in significant financial trouble. RIM hasn't posted a profit in the previous 3 quarters, while Nokia hasn't posted a profit in well over one year.
If Nokia needs assistance in helping them balance their books, maybe they should start by exiting the US market, since they make significantly more money i
LMAO (Score:5, Insightful)
You know you are in dire straights (Nokia) when they are anticipating competition from RIM.
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Or viewing RIM as having deep pockets at this point. They're relying on RIM's "on its last leg" status to settle out of court all that much faster to keep direly-needed sales flowing. Scummy patent troll behavior, independent of the validity of any legitimate patent issues.
Sigh... (Score:2)
Very Microsoft of them (Score:3)
No more innovation! Law suits are the way of the future!
Setting a precedent (Score:1)
Technology's Bum Fights(tm) (Score:2)
Oh, c'mon... (Score:2)
How much (Score:3)
That seems to be a major problem these days. They are no longer producing anything and making others pay for something which happened long time ago.
"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it. Its peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possess the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lites his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement, or exclusive appropriation. Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property." ThomasJefferson