Northeastern University Sues Google Over Patent 159
kihbord writes to mention that Boston's Northeastern University and Waltham, Mass. based company Jarg have brought suit against Google for apparently infringing on a distributed database system developed by Kenneth Baclawski. "The patent describes a distributed database system that breaks search queries into fragments and distributes them to multiple computers in a network to get faster results. The patent was assigned to Northeastern University, which licensed it exclusively to Jarg, according to the lawsuit, filed last Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas."
Re:We need a solution to the madness (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lawyers Troll the Patent Office? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:We need a solution to the madness (Score:3, Insightful)
has got to be about as obvious as can be.
Soon they will be suing the people who came up with RPC,
because it breaks the same patent.
Re:Dont be so quick to shout troll (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Patent In Question & University Patent Port (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact is that the patent system has long been designed so that you need money to enjoy its protection, people who are unemployed very rarely have enough money to file a patent and most contracts of employment sign any patent rights over to your employer.
Re:Interesting Dates (Score:3, Insightful)
It was filed on October 5, 1994. December 2, 1997 is the issue date.
Re:We need a solution to the madness (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like a patent troll, sounds like a patent troll, smells like a patent troll. They're not going to be able to claim damages for lost profits. The only difference between these people and a typical dedicated patent troll IP firm is that they don't employ their own lawyers and they make some shitty, unrelated product that really has no relevance to this case.
Re:University with Patents? (Score:3, Insightful)
Right. As usual on Slashdot, everything must be black and white. It's not as if universities could seek to profit from their inventions, AND educate people and give back to society. Also, since making a profit makes you evil, they are obviously not trying to use the money to improve their programs and stretch their limited budgets.
Re:We need a solution to the madness (Score:5, Insightful)
Dividing the search up among multiple machines if one
machine is not enough is pretty obvious. And not just
in hindsight.
"but who gets to say so?"
I see the problem, but I don't think we should allow that
as an excuse for such things.
Re:Prior Art? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't be so damn cynical! Obviously Northeastern just wants to play fair by moving the disupute to a neutral venue.
You, sir, have a future in PR.
Re:Just another patent troll... (Score:3, Insightful)