hellwig
Distinguished
I think a companies intent should be taken into consideration when they file a patent. They just happened to be ready to file a lawsuit the very day Google released its service to the public? Sounds to me like they waited until Google was vested int he idea (and thus, would incur significant costs to pull their product), thus Google would be more inclined to settle. I say if Frontier heard about Google Voice months ago when the beta rolled out, and purposefully decided to wait until Google released the product, that should invalidate their claims. Yes, the Patent office should protect peoples inventions, but those same patents shouldn't be used for a free payday.
It the same thing with HTML5 and Ogg Theora. The big companies (Apple, Microsoft, etc...) are claiming they don't want to use Ogg because they're afraid someone with a patent claim is waiting for a big company to support it, which is just crap. I saw release a press statement about Ogg, give companies a year to assert any patent claims, then call the technology safe from patent and let the world use it. Why should a company like Google have to support it before some patent troll in Texas says "oh yeah, we had a patent for that, but we've had our heads buried up our own ass for the past 5 years and hadn't heard of Ogg Theora until Google released VP8.
Google published the use of the technology when they released Google Voice beta. This should have started a ticking clock. Give companies one year to investigate a product to see if it infringes their patent. If they fail to file suit within a reasonable amount of time, they lose their right to defend their patent (just like trademarks). They shouldn't be able to wait until Google has invested millions or billions in the tech before suing.
It the same thing with HTML5 and Ogg Theora. The big companies (Apple, Microsoft, etc...) are claiming they don't want to use Ogg because they're afraid someone with a patent claim is waiting for a big company to support it, which is just crap. I saw release a press statement about Ogg, give companies a year to assert any patent claims, then call the technology safe from patent and let the world use it. Why should a company like Google have to support it before some patent troll in Texas says "oh yeah, we had a patent for that, but we've had our heads buried up our own ass for the past 5 years and hadn't heard of Ogg Theora until Google released VP8.
Google published the use of the technology when they released Google Voice beta. This should have started a ticking clock. Give companies one year to investigate a product to see if it infringes their patent. If they fail to file suit within a reasonable amount of time, they lose their right to defend their patent (just like trademarks). They shouldn't be able to wait until Google has invested millions or billions in the tech before suing.