{"id":18851,"date":"2012-08-30T22:10:31","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T02:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T12:34:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T16:34:12","slug":"patent-trolls-after-foursquare-and-buzzfeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/patent-trolls-after-foursquare-and-buzzfeed\/","title":{"rendered":"Patent Trolls After Foursquare and Buzzfeed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Patent<\/a>Non-practicing entities<\/strong> continue to take it to young companies with a vengeance. Jeff John Roberts<\/a> at GigaOM<\/em><\/a> reports<\/a> that a Nevada-based non-practicing entity (aka Patent troll<\/strong>) shell company that claims to own basic navigation technology<\/strong> wants Foursquare<\/a> to pay up. The patent troll Silver State Intellectual Technologies Inc<\/a> has filed a lawsuit in Las Vegas, seeking an injunction and damages related to U.S. Patent 7475057<\/a> (\u201cSystem and method for user navigation\u201d) and U.S. Patent 7343165<\/a> (\u201cGPS Publication Application Server\u201d), claiming the popular app is violating these two patents.<\/p>\n

\"foursquare\"<\/a>The article says both patents describe the process of pushing information from a remote server to a user based on the location of that user<\/strong> and show diagrams. The Foursquare app relies on location tracking technology to offer a service that lets users and their friends \u201ccheck-in\u201d to restaurants, merchants, and other physical locations. Silver State\u2019s short legal filing doesn\u2019t describe how Foursquare infringed on the patent according to the blog.<\/p>\n

Applications for the two Silver State patents were filed in 2000 and 2001 and were granted in 2008 and 2009. The article says the named inventor, Michael Obradovich, transferred the patents to a shell company shortly after he received the patents.<\/p>\n

In another case, Mobile Transformation LLC a shell company<\/a> is suing the popular viral news site BuzzFeed<\/a>. The patent troll says its patent gives it the exclusive right to place certain ads in online videos<\/strong>. The\u00a0non-practicing entity is suing BuzzFeed over the video \u201cRomney vs Boris<\/a>.\u201d Mr. Johnson at GigaOM<\/em><\/a> says<\/a> the patent troll claims the video violates its technology by showing a static ad at the same time the video is streaming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Buzzfeed\"<\/a>The shell company’s suit<\/a> is reportedly relying on US Patent 6,351,736<\/a> which was issued in 2002 and covers a \u201csystem and method for displaying advertisements with played data.\u201d The \u201cmethod\u201d described in the patent refers to the idea of showing a visual ad while music is playing explains GigaOM.<\/em><\/p>\n

The BuzzFeed video, which shows London mayor Boris Johnson<\/a> slamming Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, is not an audio clip. Mobile Transformation LCC claims, however, that it violates the patent because it uses an \u201cembedded flash player to present a first data type of a video file of \u201cBoris v Romney<\/a>\u201d along with the presentation of advertising data of a second type that includes a static image advertisement.\u201d Records show the patent passed through a chain of shell companies<\/strong> before it became the basis of the current troll suit.<\/p>\n

The author points out that the lawsuit comes at a time when so-called patent trolls like Silver State and Mobile Transformation LLC\u00a0 have become aggressive about suing promising young companies<\/strong>. In addition to Foursquare and BuzzFeed,\u00a0Etsy<\/a> and Hipmunk<\/a>\u00a0were \u201cmugged on payday\u201d when they were hit with patent suits. This is the second time Foursquare has been hit by a patent suit. GigaOM<\/em> speculates that BuzzFeed\u00a0is unlikely to roll over for the patent troll. Last year another shell company sued\u00a0The website, which makes highly sharable content like \u201cThe 25 Happiest Animals in the World<\/a>,\u201d for allegedly infringing on a method for mobile shopping<\/strong>. Last year, BuzzFeed countered-sued copyright troll Righthaven<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to GigaOM<\/em>, patent trolling involves shell companies that don\u2019t make anything but instead acquire patents to demand money<\/strong> from companies that do make things. The article says Mobile Transformation LLC has already sued 21 companies and settled with a dozen of them.<\/p>\n

\"\"Since they have no tangible assets, the shell companies are not vulnerable to countersuits<\/strong>, meaning their victims often fold their cards and pay a licensing fee for the troll to go away and not risk the cost of a prolonged lawsuit even though recent research<\/a> suggests doing so may be a mistake.<\/p>\n

The shell company structure is advantageous to the patent holders because it\u2019s typically impossible to tell who is collecting on the patent payouts<\/strong> and because their lack of assets or a real business makes them impervious to countersuits<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Buzzfeed is no longer a guilty pleasure, they are heroes for standing up against the patent troll business model.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patent trolls continue to take it to young firms Buzzfeed and Foursquare are the latest growing firms to be sued by shell companies for dubious patent infringement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2197,1348,32,1347,681,1350,1108,1323],"class_list":["post-18851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-2197","tag-boris-johnson","tag-business","tag-buzzfeed","tag-foursquare","tag-hipmunk","tag-mitt-romney","tag-patent-troll"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18851"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130841,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851\/revisions\/130841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}