back to article Patent battle over Facebook Live and 'walkie talkie' tech rattles through High Court in London

A legal battle between a company which says Facebook Live infringes one of its patents and the anti-social networking biz is currently playing out in the High Court of England and Wales as part of a long-running multinational legal battle. Voxer, which The Register briefly covered in 2011 when it launched its “walkie-talkie …

  1. Ashto5

    Yawn ...

    Boring ...

  2. The First Dave

    As usual, I hope that both parties lose, but particularly FB.

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Flame

      I side against software patents, regardless of which side that is on.

  3. MiguelC Silver badge

    "Its unique selling point is that viewers of the stream can pause and rewind it to re-watch parts at their leisure before jumping back to the live stream again."

    So, hum, like any TV set-top-box from the last 2 decades?

    1. Freddie
      Joke

      No, this is very different because lawyers and money!

    2. Cuddles

      Or indeed like YouTube, Twitch, Iplayer, or basically any other streaming video service. I could at least see an argument that a set-top box recording a broadcast and then playing it back with rewind and pause functionality is a bit different from an internet stream that offers such functions directly, but I can't see any way Facebook Live is different from any other internet stream.

    3. MrDamage Silver badge

      They learnt from Apple

      Take an existing patent, whack "on a phone" at the end of it, and hey presto, "new" tech.

  4. ForthIsNotDead
    Stop

    Err..

    How can Voxer sue Facebook in Texas for copying it's tech, then argue in London that the tech is 'fundamentally different?

    1. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: Err..

      Simple:

      1. Voxer sued Facebook in Texas for stealing its IP and incorporating it into FB Live and Instagram Live.

      2. Voxer sued FB in London for patent infringement by FB Live and Instagram Live.

      3. FB, for its part, claims Voxer infringes (unspecified) FB IP and want the Voxer patent declared invalid; which is an interesting pitch given Voxer had a product years before FB Live. It is to this case that Voxer are arguing their tech is fundamentally different to FB.

      1. don't you hate it when you lose your account

        Re: Err..

        Thanks for explaining. Unfortunately my brain still imploded at the total lunacy

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          Re: Err..

          That's okay.

          Done a little more digging:

          Some relevant reading...

          1) Voxer v. Facebook (Texas) Complaint

          2) Facebook v. Blackberry (California) Complaint

          The Blackberry case is interesting, I suspect many have missed or forgotten that Facebook took over AOL's patent portfolio...

          I laughed that one of the 'infringements' of the Blackberry products was the implementation of a button on the UI by which "an instant messaging user can initiate voice communication".

          So it would seem we can expect more of these "round corner" "trash can" patent infringement cases...

  5. Chris G

    The only good thing about these cases is the pond scum lawyers are being kept busy and not creating problems for normal people.

  6. TV nerd

    Nonesense.

    There is no such thing as a “EU Patent”.

    The EPO is nothing to do with the EU.

    The referenced article concerning the use of the English courts by German entities to bring actions is to do with limitations in the German legal system. It is nothing to do with the EU ...

  7. hoola Silver badge

    Buy-out

    Voxer is based in the US and if it has shareholders or VC money then all Facebook has to do is a hostile takeover with enough of an incentive that personal greed wins.

    They appear to be very small with $30 million of funding. Even going to 10x that as an incentive is small change down the back or the sofa for Facebook.

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