Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage' • Hacker News Board

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#11

Post by fleitz » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 8:34 PM UTC

diego_moita wrote: post #9

This is very nice! Politicians will only solve a problem after it becomes a calamity. If the problem gets bad enough, they might start paying attention.

I thought politicians just made things worse after problems become calamities. The calamity just alerts them to the fact that there is money to be made being part of the problem.

Watch for campaign contributions to start flowing before these companies start suing regular people.

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#12

Post by sukuriant » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 8:44 PM UTC

What is this patent actually for? I was looking up wifi, and the precursor to 802.11 came out in '91. That's well over 17 years ago.

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#13

Post by colinhowe » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 8:58 PM UTC

Does anyone know what these patents claim to cover? "wifi" seems a bit broad

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#14

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:01 PM UTC

fleitz wrote: post #11

diego_moita wrote: post #9

This is very nice! Politicians will only solve a problem after it becomes a calamity. If the problem gets bad enough, they might start paying attention.

I thought politicians just made things worse after problems become calamities. The calamity just alerts them to the fact that there is money to be made being part of the problem. Watch for campaign contributions to start flowing before these companies start suing regular people.

[deleted]

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#15

Post by Astrohacker » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:01 PM UTC

diego_moita wrote: post #9

This is very nice! Politicians will only solve a problem after it becomes a calamity. If the problem gets bad enough, they might start paying attention.

Politicians created the problem by creating IP laws. If they "solve" it, they will undoubtedly just introduce some new problem.

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#16

Post by octopus » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:04 PM UTC

I'm not a lawyer, so my question is simple - say that you receive a citation from Innovation and you simply ignore this. What then ? They will actually take you to court ?

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#17

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:06 PM UTC

colinhowe wrote: post #13

Does anyone know what these patents claim to cover? "wifi" seems a bit broad

[deleted]

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#18

Post by jcromartie » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:15 PM UTC

octopus wrote: post #16

I'm not a lawyer, so my question is simple - say that you receive a citation from Innovation and you simply ignore this. What then ? They will actually take you to court ?

This is exactly what I have been wondering. The case has no merit: they can't sue me for buying a Linksys router, can they?

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#19

Post by colinhowe » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:16 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #17

colinhowe wrote: post #13

Does anyone know what these patents claim to cover? "wifi" seems a bit broad

[deleted]

Clearly invalid. Prior use dates back to X BC when gestures by cavemen were used.

[Edit] Or are they going to be chasing anyone that uses light in some fashion?

Re: Patent Troll: Anyone Using WiFi Infringes; Won't Sue Individuals 'At This Stage'

#20

Post by skymt » Mon, Oct 03, 2011, 9:16 PM UTC

colinhowe wrote: post #13

Does anyone know what these patents claim to cover? "wifi" seems a bit broad

Here's one of their suits: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fia700405.us....

I don't know enough about the details of wifi to say whether the patents in question actually apply, but it seems plausible. Here are all the patents listed in the suit: