Nokia, along Matsushita and Samsung, are being sued over Bluetooth patents
By Stefan Constantinescu on Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007 at 5:45 PM PST In Financial/Corporate News
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Oyj, are accused of using patented wireless-communication technology without permission in a lawsuit brought by the Washington Research Foundation.
Matsushita, the world’s biggest consumer-electronics maker, its Panasonic (NYSE: PC) unit, as well as Samsung and Nokia are infringing four patents for technology sold under the "Bluetooth” name, the foundation said in a suit filed Dec. 21 in Seattle federal court. The technology lets users exchange data between mobile phones, PCs and other devices without using cables.
The nonprofit Washington Research Foundation, which has given more than $150 million to the University of Washington, is asking for a court order barring the sale of products that use the patented technology and monetary damages.
The Seattle-based foundation said it isn’t asserting patent- infringement claims against products that use Broadcom (NSDQ: BRCM) Corp. chipsets because Broadcom licenses the technology. Rather, the foundation said, the suit is aimed at products that use chipsets made by companies other than Broadcom, "specifically those manufactured by CSR Plc.”
Source: Chicago Tribune
So let me get this straight … Nokia, Samsung, and Matsushita are getting sued for using Bluetooth chipsets from a company who doesn’t have rights.
The logic meter isn’t picking up a signal.
Why not sue CSR?!
They won’t sue CSR because they probably don’t have NEAR the amount of cash reserves that Nokia, Samsung, and Matsushita have. This annoys the hell out of me, personally.
If I was in charge of the patent office, here’d be my rules:
1. If you can’t make it work within 5 years of “inventing” it, it’s fair game again. You have to reapply
2. If you can already do it, you can’t patent an “improvement.”
3. If you have a legit patent, and someone else uses it without you doing anything about it for more than 2 years, you don’t deserve to bank off it. (RIM vs. NTP)
That would solve alot of this crap right from the get-go.
Don’t even get me started on the US patent system!
If you’re going to be in a fight, wouldn’t you go for the critical damage zones first? I know they just want money, hopefully the judge will see that too.