back to article Wi-LAN throws down Bluetooth patent glove

Fighting everyone involved in Wi-Fi and WiMAX is not enough for Canadian patent hoarder Wi-LAN, which is now also slapping a suit on 31 companies connected to Bluetooth. The list of targets includes Apple, Intel, Dell and Sony, along with component manufacturers such as Marvell, Broadcom and Texas Instruments, all of which are …

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  1. Cameron Colley

    WTF!?

    I just read the patent and I can't believe that:

    a) Garbage like that is actually accepted (the word "random" does not mean what those submitting the patent think it does).

    b) Something that blatantly simple is patentable.

    Without reading the patent I came up with a pretty similar scheme in my head while trying to work out how frequency hoping would be managed -- it's so damn obvious and lacking in technical detail that anyone with a vague idea about how devices may operate could come up with it.

    I hate to admit but until now I hadn't read the patents over which the many brawls reported on the register have taken place -- but now I have I know that the US patent system is an innovation-killing cesspool which the world would be better off without.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Title?

    "but have not heard back as yet."

    LOL... does anyone actually ever get back to you regarding any questions you ask?

    Over the last few days I have lost count of how many times i have read the imortal words "but have not heard back as yet."

    1. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Title?

      They did (yes, we were surprised too). Seems the patent was bought by Wi-LAN just over a month ago, and the story has been updated to note that.

      It's been around though - Wi-LAN is the sixth owner of this patent.

      Bill.

  3. M. Burns Silver badge
    Boffin

    What is amazing about US patent 5,515,369

    Is how the heck if ever got granted, given US patent 2,292,387.

  4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Headmaster

    In before paytards come out of the woodwork...

    ...to laud the benefits of the patent system for the overall economy.

  5. Dazed and Confused

    Frequency hopping

    has been around since the year dot

    I worked on a frequency hopping digital radio system back in the mid eighties and I don't think the idea was new then. Surely anything patentable in this area should have expired by now.

    Is the US patent office run as a profit centre?

    Do the staff get bonuses for each patent registered?

    Is there a monthly prise for the most absurd patent registered.

    1. Al 4

      Needed perhaps

      Since the DOD has been doing frequency hopping, spread spectrum and other, what some might consider exotic methods of communications, for decades before the patent, they may force the hand of some of the companies involved in those operations and wind up nullifying that patent and perhaps more in their portfolio. One can only hope.

  6. asdf
    FAIL

    Re: paytards

    Have to say it is actually very rare to actually see anyone not purposely trolling defend the US patent system. It seems to be one thing IT people on the left and right can agree with. The only people at all that defend it only defend it when they are getting paid hundred of dollars an hour to do so. Funny how when most lawmakers are ex lawyers how slow the laws get changed regarding a lawyer cash cow.

  7. Rex Alfie Lee
    Pirate

    Bull crap!

    This is so typical of IT patents. How can a patent be granted on idea alone? This is true garbage. My other viewpoint on this is the ownership. If someone sells it it's worthless or should be. Once the owner gives up their rights of patency it should be dumped immediately into open usage. As for how a wireless connection works, perhaps I could imagine one using duct tape & patent that.

    Absolute tripe.

  8. Bryan W
    Paris Hilton

    Sooooo 20th Century

    What a waste of time and money. Yet another ridiculous (financial) weight on the shoulders of companies that actually produce something tangible, that I'm sure I will pay for later when I buy related components. Owning un-realized ideas is one of the concepts of the modern world that I will never be able to swallow..Make it first, it should be yours.

    Its too easy to create fantasy patents or guess at the next technology in hopes that one can cash in on someone else who will do the actual work later. Rubbish.

    Paris will agree, patents are sooo last year.

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