Weapons of Mass DistractionGoogle Sued for Patent Infringement

It seems that anything you could possibly think up and do with software now days is patented by someone else out there.   Many companies exist with the sole purpose of hoarding patents and sueing anyone out there that they can.  This has happened to Google now over their Google Talk application.  The company in question is called Rates Technology holds patents relating to making telephone calls over the Internet.  They are seeking up to 5 billion dollars (hahaha, yeah right).  That stupid company could probably be bought out for less than 100 million.  Many other companies have been hit by these guys and ended up licensing their patents so they can create VoIP applications.

I think patents are a good thing when they protect companies and peoples ideas, but this is a bit much.  These days software patents exist for obvious things that any CS student could think of.

Perhaps Google will fight this in court and get the patents thrown out.  If that happens I imagine that the 120 other companies paying the patent tax to this company will decide to stop. 

File this one under "stupid patents" along with the Amazon 1-click patent and countless others.

Comments: