Google Patent Search Upgrade Adds Prior Art & Scholar Results
Google makes it easier for users to find patents with the new Patent Search. Mostly because of Google's efforts behind the PTO’s Patent Quality Initiative.
Topic: Patent troll
Google May Be Forced To Pay $1 Billion To Patent Troll
A New York-based “patent troll” called Vringo, through its subsidiary I/P engine, successfully sued Google, Microsoft, AOL and others using two patents related to search advertising. The plaintiff won approximately $30 million at trial in 2012. Google was asked to pay $15.8 million of that amount. Yet plaintiffs were also seeking ongoing royalties, which the court has now awarded. […]
Google Loses Again In AdWords Patent Infringement Case
A judge has determined patent-holding company Vringo is entitled to additional royalties from Google in a patent infringement case involving Google AdWords. The order stems from a case brought by Vringo subsidiary I/P Engine in 2011 that claimed filtering technology used in Google AdWords violated two of its patents. A jury found in favor of […]
Google, Android Makers Sued By Apple “Rockstar” Consortium Over Search, AdWords
Roughly two years ago Google and a consortium of companies competitively bid for the vast patent portfolio of bankrupt Canadian Company Nortel Networks. Google initiated the bidding with $900 million but ultimately was outbid by the Rockstar consortium, consisting of Microsoft, Apple, Blackberry, Ericsson and Sony. Google’s final bid was $4.4 billion. Rockstar won the patents for […]
Google & Motorola Mobility: The What’s It All Mean Edition
What a way to start the week. The company that once said it would never build its own mobile phones, Google, wants to buy mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility. The technosphere has gone into 5G coverage over the news. Here’s what I’ve been finding interesting and some thoughts. Patent Protection A big part of this […]
The Growing Portrait Of Google As A Big, Scary, Expanding Everywhere Copy Monster
Twice this year, Google’s been fairly frank and vocal about something competitors have done that it feels is unfair. Twice, I’ve watched the technosphere largely react by beating the company over the head with a “You do whatever you want and copy everyone else” stick. Does that measure up, and more so than for Google […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, August 4, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Report: Android Now 40 Percent Of Smartphone Market According to the latest comScore data, Android handsets now constitute 40 percent of the US smartphone market. Number two Apple gained modestly, and […]
Google’s Patent Screed Emerges As PR Blunder
Google’s mostly ill-conceived patent screed from yesterday has opened the floodgates of discussion about Google’s (Android’s) vulnerability to third party patents owned by Microsoft, Oracle and Apple. Among the throng of comments and opinions about the episode are a few Google sympathizers, such as Forbes blogger Tim Lee who believes Google should advocate for the […]
Google Bids Nearly $1 Billion For Nortel Patent Portfolio
Google has bid $900 million (according to the Wall Street Journal) for an extensive patent portfolio owned by the now-bankrupt Canadian company Nortel Networks. The move is primarily defensive, as Google explains in a blog post: The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to […]
Google, Microsoft Cooperate To Invalidate Broad Online Mapping Patent
It’s reasonable to say that the world of technology patents is screwed up and headed for some major reform. One area in which this is very apparent is location/mapping/geo. There are a number of seemingly conflicting or contradictory local and local-mobile patents that have been issued over the past several years. Some of these patents […]
“Free Isn’t Free”: Microsoft Trying To Make Android More Costly With Patent Suit
News broke yesterday that Microsoft was suing Motorola for Android-related patent infringements. Microsoft said in a blog post that its patents cover a range of software functions used by Android devices (presumably this would apply to the iPhone as well): The Microsoft innovations at issue in this case help make smartphones “smart.” Indeed, our patents […]
StreetSpace Sues Google, Nokia, Apple, Mobile Ad Networks For Infringement Of Location-Based Ads Patent
StreetSpace is a company you probably haven’t heard of, but it’s not a so-called “patent troll” seeking to cash in on unimplemented intellectual property. Rather StreetSpace is a company that has been around since 1999 and installs internet kioks in public spaces, such as airports, retail locations and restaurants. Here’s a description of its main […]
SearchBiz Legal Edition: Varney Uses The “M Word,” More AdWords Litigation, Yahoo Lawyer Files Complaint — Against Yahoo
If Christine A. Varney is confirmed as the head of anti-trust for the US Justice Department it may signal tough times ahead for Big G. Bloomberg discusses public remarks that Obama nominee Varney made before the American Antitrust Institute about Google in a June, 2008 speech: The U.S. economy will “continually see a problem — […]
Search Biz: Yahoo Morale OK, Musical Chairs At Google, Microsoft, Marc Andreessen Joins Facebook Board, & Tech Giants Fight “Patent Trolls”
Lots of action for SearchBiz today; let’s start with Yahoo. Fortune reprints a purported Yahoo employee email that is very upbeat and flies in the face of the gloom and doom analysis going on in the blogs. Meanwhile, TechCrunch reports on another executive loss at the company, while Carl “proxy fight” Icahn uses his blog […]
Google, AOL, Yahoo, & Digg Sued For Playing Online Solitaire
Digg And Others Sued For Infringing Infamous Computer Solitaire Patent from Techdirt reports Google, Yahoo, AOL, and even Digg were all sued by Sheldon F. Goldberg for patent infringement of US Patent 6,264,560. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls Sheldon a wanted person who has crimes against the public domain for threatening small online gaming websites […]