Microsoft and Google tag-team GeoTag patent

Microsoft and Google have found a common cause. The two companies just joined forces to sue a tiny geo-location patent jihadist. The giants have taken GeoTag to court, claiming that the company sued more than 300 outfits that use Bing Maps and Google Maps. The pair want a US court to rule that the Bing and Google Maps …

[Anomalous Cowturd]

IP trolls, pure and simple...

A ten cent website for a multi million dollar company? Hmmm......

Back under your bridge.

[Saigua]

Hobo, Euclid answer prior art call.

Eurohoboes, day in court, has.

[heyrick]

This is getting silly

How much longer do you think it will be before they realise that the patent system is messed up, the e.d. court of Texas has shown sufficient bias that one wonders if there is any actual justice served there, and that patent trolls serve no useful purpose.

Really, it is like "the law" has given one of the world's largest economies a way to repeatedly shoot itself in the foot (while making itself increasingly marginalised).

[JaitcH]

"Eastern District of Texas is traditionally friendly towards patent holders" - not for long

The new patents legislation working it's way through the U.S. congress has, according to press reports, language that is intended to kill off trial venue shopping so companies will have to take their lumps elsewhere.

[Goat Jam]

Errr

Go Microsoft?

Oh, I think I need to have a little lie down now . . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

non-obvious?

Mapping service + search engine/directory service

You don't even need to be skilled in the art to see that it's an obvious step to stick a pin in the map where your business is located.

Alternatively, I am a true genius and ought to start patenting every waking thought I have.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ideas

The problem with the system is that it seems to be possible to patent a pretty vague idea rather than a practical application. So you could patent the idea to travel in time by the application of electromagnetic forces (if somebody hasn't already done it) and then wait around until somebody actually manages it and then sue them. Whole thing's a mess.

[BorkedAgain]

Why limit yourself?

I've been monitoring your dreams, and some of them would be worth patenting as well.

Not the one about the prunes, though. Yes, that one. Weirdo.

[Disco-Legend-Zeke]

"X Marks...

...the spot, Matey."

"Hey, we have a patent on that. You owe us 10% of the buried treasure."

Taking a known technology to the Internet is not unlike taking an existing product to a vending machine. A patent does not make it original.

[Gannon (J.) Dick]

Sigh.

It's probably inevitable that this fight should surface in a commercial context. If Facebook joins, on either side, as a Texan I'm going to send the World a bill - nanny services for slimy IP Lawyers.

The problem is, yes the Patent System, but not because it's worthless except as entertainment value, but rather that it promotes prolonged litigation of issues by parties who in a just world, would both lose. Patent Trolls prey on the weak, but hunting the weak to extinction is not a remedy in the opinion of the weak.

GeoTag may be trolls, but our "Champions" (Google and Microsoft) are in it for themselves, without one little tiny shred of an altruistic motive. No matter who wins (place your bets, show starts soon), your expectation of privacy will be diminished because boundaries diminish.