Nokia Feeds a Patent Troll

New submitter glebovitz writes "In case anyone missed the other Nokia news: on the same day they announced the sale of Qt to Digia, they also sold 500 patents to Vringo. Vringo, a video ring tone company, recently merged with patent portfolio company Innovate/Protect which includes Donald Stout, the founder of patent holding company NTP, on its board. Forbes refers to NTP as 'a patent troll which milked Research In Motion for $612.5 million in a patent infringement settlement reached in 2006.' As Eric Savitz writes in the article, 'Vringo decided to basically turn itself into a patent troll.'"

how long till the lawsuits start flying?

[halfEvilTech]

I would be shocked if none have been filed by the end of the month.

Re:how long till the lawsuits start flying?

[radiumsoup]

already in process - Vringo has settled part of a suit against AOL, but stands to receive as much as $1B from Google (that's not a misprint, it's widely estimated that damages could go as high as one billion US Dollars.) Trial starts around Oct 18th if memory serves

Re:how long till the lawsuits start flying?

[radiumsoup]

different lawsuit - Vringo has sued Google for patents owned from a previous merger not related to the Nokia patents... but it does support the idea of Vringo going after patent infringements for a primary source of revenue.

Re:Distinctions should be made

[Halo1]

It was designed for protecting the little guy who is inventing and producing tangible goods from big companies copying him and driving him out of business.

The patent system was used by the King of England to reward his friends with monopolies. The whole "encourage innovation" and especially the whole "protect the little guy" arguments is mainly a pretty story to sell it to the masses.

I mean, just look at the arguments of patent system fans. Half the time they'll say

Patents are required, because otherwise everyone will keep everything secret and all knowledge will be lost.

The other half of the time they say

Patents are required, because otherwise everyone will immediately duplicate every innovation without the original inventor being able to get any money out of it.

While both statements can't be right at the same time, they sure can be wrong at the same time.