Company patents texting to, from Maryland, sues 131 companies
Added on 2007-11-15 14:34:00
by Mark Brezinski
 We would like to begin this article by stating that we know nothing about patent law. We would then like to follow up that statement by claiming the following lawsuit is hilariously absurd. Apparently 131 companies are guilty of a patent-infringement most foul. A company in Maryland has stepped forward to assert its newly-awarded patent on the coveted intellectual property, "Sending International Text Messages To/From the State of Maryland". The wronged company, Technology Patents LLC, is asking for a total injunction against all US carriers and also a pile of money so gigantic that it could feasibly flatten a mid-sized sedan.
In an interesting related story, the Supreme Court has passed a ruling on a similar case involving Ebay and a tiny patent-holding company. The tiny company apparently held, but wasn't using, a patent on auctions with fixed, "buy it now", reserve prices. The Supreme Court basically ruled that a total injunction couldn't be upheld. Interestingly, however, the ruling was overturned by a lower court. As is the case, there is still a lot of gray area around patents.
Again, we know nothing of patent law, but it seems rather suspicious that these patents are recent. An uneducated observer might be so bold as to claim this company clearly scoured the earth for widely-used technologies that remained unpatented. One could also say this is one of the more blatant example of patent trolling. Of course, we wouldn't assert any such thing, as a company driven mad by the power of litigation is probably the type of company that would misconstrue a sarcastic opinion with libel.
[Via Engadget]
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