 
pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Drag It Out? Would it be possible for the wireless companies to simply drag court proceedings out long enough so that enough time has passed that these patents expire?
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Only SHATNER is Kirk. | |
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 | BarneyBadAss
Badasses Fight For Freedom
Premium
join:2004-05-07
00001 | Re: Drag It Out? nope... | |
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meskinct
This space for rent
Premium
join:2002-01-07
Danbury, CT
clubs: | Buy them! How big of a corporation is NTP? If I were one of these companies named in the suit, I would seriously consider buying them. That will teach them! | |
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quanta
Premium
join:2002-05-07
Toronto, ON | Re: Buy them! NTP I believe has only one full-time employee, and he's a lawyer that just sues people. The actual inventor and original patent holder died a few years ago.. | |
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n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY
 ·Optimum Online
| Geesh... Does NTP actually make anything other than lawsuits? They are as bad as the folks that have forced us to "Click to activate and use this control" in IE.
These patent trolls really have to be brought under control. I do hope the new patent legislation includes a proposed clause that if you patent something you have to implement it within a certain period of time or it is abandoned. It would certainly go a long way towards stopping people from patenting things and then waiting for some poor soul to do all the heavy lifting and then get sued for it.
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I support the right to keep and arm bears. | |
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trparky
Bite My Shiny Metal Ass
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
clubs: | Re: Geesh... They're about as bad as SCO. | |
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| vicorjh
Premium
join:2007-06-24
Arlington, MA
| Yes, exactly they don't actually produce anything tangible that I'm aware of.
Nowadays with these firm that only produce and collect IP, it is nearly impossible not to infringe on some patented IP. And, most of the IP most of the time are absolutely ridiculous in terms of obviousness, prior implementation, or prior art.
I was with a company that had one of these trolls attack them with IP infringement for "flash" hook. Flash hook is when you tap the receiver hook connection to swith to another line or incoming call. This company, of course, did not produce anything of tangible value and simply went around suing companies.
Funnything is that the IP they were attacking had nothing in common with "flash" hook. However, the federal judge was sooooo confused about what was in question that he told both parties to settle. | |
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trparky
Bite My Shiny Metal Ass
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
clubs: | Bitten off more than they could chew? I have a feeling that with suing Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile they may just have bitten off more than they could chew. You know that these companies will fight this tooth and nail.
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Tom | |
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anon1313
@raytheon.com
| Wrong people to sue? As stated, RIM devices are excluded because of the previous lawsuit. Does that not set a precedent of going after the manufacturer of the devices, instead of the company that uses that device on their network? If they want to sue someone, shouldn't it be Nokia/Motorola etc? | |
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pleekmo
Triptoe Through The Tulips
Premium
join:2001-09-14
Manchester, CT
clubs:
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| Re: Bitten off more than they could chew? I think perhaps not. That $600 million or so settlement sure gave NTP a lot of money to afford good lawyers. I think that, like in the SCO case(s), we'll find out in discovery whether the plaintiff has a loaded gun or not.
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HCN: Because you deserve a rest!
Proud member of the Free Omelas Liberation Front. | |
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shaner
Premium
join:2000-10-04
Calgary, AB
| said by trparky  :I have a feeling that with suing Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile they may just have bitten off more than they could chew. You know that these companies will fight this tooth and nail. We said the same thing when they took RIM to court. Jim Balsillie doesn't roll over for anyone, and yet NTP stuck around long enough to win a substantial decision.
If one of the players here chooses to try and buy NTP here, then NTP has still won. All they care about is taking millions of dollars from big companies.
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I'm laying pipe,
all night long,
laying pipe,
to satisfy that woman.
- David Wilcox
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| | SD6
join:2005-03-26
| Re: Bitten off more than they could chew? said by TK Junk Mail :said by trparky :I have a feeling that with suing Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile they may just have bitten off more than they could chew. You know that these companies will fight this tooth and nail. Yes, RIM was an easy target. The new companies they are suing have enough lawyers on retainer and enough lobbying money to tie NTP up for a decade in trying to get a decision. They may be able to force NTP to give up due to lawyer fees. Quite the opposite. RIM is no slouch - they fought tooth and nail to the bitter end, partly to maintain their industry dominance and partly for bragging rights of their own. They previously claimed to have invented the processes behind wireless push email, and now they can't do that anymore because it was proven in court they didn't. It's the operators who will make a business decision based on the bottom line.
NTP did the opposite of what trolls do, they didn't sue a lot of little companies for the extortion value. They took their patents straight to the industry leader, who spent well in excess of $5 million trying to prove that NTP didn't invent it, and couldn't.
To those who don't know, NTP is what remains of a startup tech business that failed about 10 years ago, but the technology as represented by the patents was solid. Ever been involved with a start-up telecom company trying to compete with the likes of RIM? It ain't easy. So just because someone "just has patents" doesn't mean they are trying to make an easy buck. I encourage you to go read the patent position papers of organizations like IEEE that represent engineers and university researchers. | |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| Re: Bitten off more than they could chew? Well NTP has taken a big step up in class from suing RIM. RIM is worth $48 billion. The 4 companies they are now suing are worth $556 billion combined.
And here is someone who thinks NTP will have a much tougher time and the new victims won't fold like RIM did. RIM would probably have won in court, but just didn't have the gonads to continue the fight. »www.informationweek.com/blog/mai···_ev.html
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Internet News
My BLOG
My Web Page | |
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| | | | SD6
join:2005-03-26
| Re: Bitten off more than they could chew? said by TK Junk Mail :Well NTP has taken a big step up in class from suing RIM. RIM is worth $48 billion. The 4 companies they are now suing are worth $556 billion combined. And here is someone who thinks NTP will have a much tougher time and the new victims won't fold like RIM did. RIM would probably have won in court, but just didn't have the gonads to continue the fight. » www.informationweek.com/blog/mai···_ev.html RIM did not fold. They took it to court, they took it to appeal (twice), they tried to take it to the Supreme Court, they took it to Congress, they took it to the Patent Office, they took it to the Canadian governement. In the end, they settled only because their entire network was going to be shut down, and even then they took it to the 11th hour.
This lawsuit will indeed be harder. One reason being that the Supreme Court recently decided in the eBay case that there need not be any more injunctions. | |
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inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK | When will someone benevolent buy out these trolls. I wish Verizon, Sprint and ATT would buy out these patent trolls and dissolve the patents among themselves.
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"WHEN THE LAUGH TRACK STARTS THEN THE FUN STARTS!" | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| Re: When will someone benevolent buy out these trolls. said by inteller :I wish Verizon, Sprint and ATT would buy out these patent trolls and dissolve the patents among themselves. Good way to attack your competition. Buy NTP first, then bring lawsuits against all your competitors demanding they pay royalties on all their customers.
OUCH. I hope nobody does this. I hope somehow, somewhere, reason prevails and NTP Inc's patents are voided.
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) | |
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| battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000 | Yea right. They would buy them and then sue anyone that wanted to compete against them. Kinda like the whole Vonage lawsuit. | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Classic example of patents that should be voided You'd think that the idea of sending emails to phones, PDA's, mobile computers, etc would fall under the "Obvious" category.
.... Guess not. NTP Inc actually do anything, or merely exist to sue other people? | |
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GlobalMind
Domino Dude, POWER Systems Guy
Premium
join:2001-10-29
Hollywood, FL
edit:
September 12th, @10:08AM
| Here we go again.... I am shocked this was filed in VA and not TX.
From the looks of things, the Texas courts are starting to wise up to these tactics, but sadly not soon enough to put an end to this crap.
Perhaps the telcos should re-allocate the time & money they're using to fight muni-broadband, and push franchise reform towards going after and shutting down a few of the patent trolls.
The sad thing is how many folks are now totally turned off by the patent process. In my eyes nearly every patent case now, I side with the defendant almost immediately due to these pathetic lawsuits.
Versus you take a responsible owner of patents like IBM, one of the largest out there, and see how they behave. It should be very clear that folks like NTP are simply patent trolls looking for a quick buck.
It is sad how far away from the patent system's original intents we are today.
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TheGlobalMind.com | Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go? | Angus the IT Chap | |
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Death2Trolls
@rim.net | NTP is scum These guys do nothing to help grow the technology sector, instead they slow it down. | |
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brooklynman4
join:2004-09-07
Brooklyn, NY | Re: NTP is scum Its mines all mines lol | |
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hottboiinnc
Kyle
join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH
·buckeye cable
| Interesting It's interesting that NTP also owns a patent on the assembly of a wireless antenna- both omnidirectional and directional. That could put a big hit into a lot of companies banks if they went after companies who build Wireless equipment. Also being granted the patent in 1998 makes it before really wireless services were being offered. | |
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RIRWIN1983
join:2005-08-30
Columbus, OH | Re: Interesting God i hope your kidding. | |
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| | hottboiinnc
Kyle
join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH
·buckeye cable
| Re: Interesting I'm serious its one of their patents. I went and actually looked to see what ones they own. It's actually listed as 2 different ones. Granted 2 different times but the same title/topic i would assume one is different from the other. But from reading one of them its written very broad to include "any frequency" | |
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| sharksfan3
Premium
join:2004-02-16
Pleasant Valley, NY
 ·Time Warner VOIP
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by hottboiinnc :It's interesting that NTP also owns a patent on the assembly of a wireless antenna- both omnidirectional and directional. That could put a big hit into a lot of companies banks if they went after companies who build Wireless equipment. Also being granted the patent in 1998 makes it before really wireless services were being offered. What types of wireless antennas are we talking about? AM/FM/TV antennas have been around for quite some time... Prior art anyone? | |
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| rapidrick
join:1999-10-28
Bear, DE
| said by hottboiinnc : Also being granted the patent in 1998 makes it before really wireless services were being offered. 1998, uh...Yeah.... So there wasn't Cellular before 1998 then?
So, cellular has only been around the last 9 years, seemed longer to me. | |
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| | hottboiinnc
Kyle
join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH
·buckeye cable
| Re: Interesting the patent says wireless omnidirectional and directional but was given to them in 1998. But it may only be toward wireless internet. But even if it includes cellular since its says any frequency they talked the USPO into giving them the patent on the idea. The technology pay have been out before the patent but still NTP would own the patent on it. | |
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GlobalMind
Domino Dude, POWER Systems Guy
Premium
join:2001-10-29
Hollywood, FL
| Re: Interesting said by hottboiinnc :the patent says wireless omnidirectional and directional but was given to them in 1998. But it may only be toward wireless internet. But even if it includes cellular since its says any frequency they talked the USPO into giving them the patent on the idea. The technology pay have been out before the patent but still NTP would own the patent on it. Right which means they might sue but it isn't a guaranteed win. Regardless of whether this is for wireless internet or cellular or some combination of the two.
The fact that cellular service was in use well before 1998 means they would have a harder time winning that one simply due to "owning" the patent. | |
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Richard B
Fur It Up
join:2007-06-22
Portland, OR | Trial by comabt Some times I wish they bring back dueling. Let me see how many patent trolls are left if it means their gambit can cost them their lives.
A more civil way is loser pays. | |
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TheyAllDoIt
@verizon.net | Maybe They Should Verizon uses it's patents to try to kill Vonage...
Others use theirs to get their pound of flesh from the incumbents...
What is the problem? | |
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NTP Targets Verizon, AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile
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