Google to be sued for $5bn?

[danrok]

NEW YORK (AFX) - A small New York technology firm said Friday it was suing search titan Google Inc for up to 5 bln usd for patent violation in the Internet telephony software used in Google Talk.

Story here:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/fee...fx2421133.html

Sounds expensive! Google's share price has taken a hit already.

[Favu]

Microsoft has gotten away with stuff like that, and so will Google, methinks (if they even have pilfered code).

[danrok]

It would seem likely that they have pilfered the code. Every other company using VoIP has paid these guys.

[Daniel ~]

My guess is they will pony up out of court and then shut up. The patent seems quite well established....

Gizmo, you know a bit about patents what do you think?

[Gizmo]

I don't know enough about this particular issue to have an informed opinion at this point. However, if the claim of RTI that the likes of Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco have licenses, I'd have to believe that the patent is pretty solid.

Google's response is probably just the standard "we haven't had time to fully evaluate our legal position" clap-trap. It sounds to me like Google got caught flat-footed by this whole thing, not realizing that there were patent issues involved. I also can't help but wonder if RTI tried to negotiate with Google before filing the lawsuit or not.

[Daniel ~]

Wasn't there a Game board inventer (Atari or someone) who filed patent the sat back and waited for violators to sue? Got quite rich doing this as I recall.

[Gizmo]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

Wasn't there a Game board inventer (Atari or someone) who filed patent the sat back and waited for violators to sue? Got quite rich doing this as I recall.

Which is precisely why I wonder if RTI tried to negotiate before suing, or if they just went straight to the lawsuit.

[Daniel ~]

I thought you might be thinking that, which is why I was thinking that.":O}

[danrok]

Most of this stuff gets settled out of court and they make you sign something that prevents you from speaking to the press. So, most of it we never get to know about.

[Azriel]

Atari let the gemini system go to market and make quite a bit of money before going after them. Is this what you are referring to Daniel? It was a console that played the atari games.

[Daniel ~]

Pretty sure it is. I saw something on it a while back. Something about never having a really made a successful product but cleaning up on infringement violations to the extent they made more than those who successfully used their patented work... sounds like the way to go to me! ":O}

[danrok]

Originally Posted by Azriel

Atari let the gemini system go to market and make quite a bit of money before going after them.

No point in suing until they have money!

[Áedán]

They appear to claim to have a patent on instant messenging as well. That would put many companies at risk of infringing the code, as Google's IM client uses the open source Jabber protocol. Are RTI going to sue the open source guys as well?