After takin' a swig o' grog, Homer belched out
this bit o' wisdom:
> Verily I say unto thee, that Doug Mentohl spake thusly:
>> Google, Yahoo, IAC, AOL, and Lycos -- the major Internet search
>> companies other than Microsoft -- on Wednesday filed a motion to
>> compel the Software Rights Archive (SRA) to reveal who is behind its
>> 2-year-old patent lawsuit against them
>
> I'll hedge my bets and say the Patent Troll is either:
>
> . One of the Vole's shell companies, like:
>
> . Intellectual Ventures (Nathan Myhrvold, ex-Softie), or
> . Acacia / IP Innovation LLC (again, ex-Softies).
>
> . Or it's Ray Niro.
Interesting and funny:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080527/1619231238.shtml
Microsoft Demanding Some Of Immersion's Patent Booty From Sony
A few weeks back, we wrote about how Immersion was involved in a bizarre
lawsuit involving a firm focused on the "teledildonics" market (look it
up -- or, actually, you're probably better off not). Immersion, of
course, is well known in the tech world for holding a bunch of patents on
"haptic" technology, which many people are more familiar with as "force
feedback" in devices like video game controllers. Immersion is not afraid
to use its patents and has been involved in numerous lawsuits -- with the
big one yielding $130 million from Sony for the force feedback
controllers used in the PlayStation. The case mentioned a few weeks ago
involved a shell firm that Immersion had done a deal with. Since
Immersion didn't want to smear its own name by suing companies involved
in force feedback sex devices, it basically licensed the legal rights out
to this shell company. However, that shell company felt that Immersion
owed it some of the $130 million Sony booty.
While the case with the shell company has now been dismissed, Joe Mullin
notes an even more interesting case: Microsoft is also demanding a large
cut of the Sony settlement money. Here's where things get tricky.
Basically, Immersion had sued Microsoft as well for violating the
patents. But, as we've seen other companies do, part of the settlement
terms between Immersion and Microsoft are that Microsoft would join the
patent battle against Sony and get a cut of any settlement money that
came out of that lawsuit. In effect, rather than just paying up to
license the patent, Microsoft switched sides in the lawsuit.
Teledildonics. Heh.
--
Sweater, n.:
A garment worn by a child when its mother feels chilly.
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