Comment Re:So if they aren't a patent troll... (Score 1) 159
Actually, Jarg, a small firm that the Northeastern University professor co-founded a long time ago, filed the lawsuit. The firm couldn't afford to pay in advance to file the lawsuit, and were only recently able to find a law firm who would accept the case on contingency. The law firm decided that Marshall, Texas, was the best place to file because its courts are known for their expertise in patent infringement cases.
Who knows why they're only suing Google? The story going around is that someone (from another law firm) saw a presentation by Google on their search algorithm, and notified Jarg that it was strikingly similar to their patented technology. A small firm like Jarg probably doesn't have enough funds to fight all of them at the same time, so they're starting with Google.
If the case is without merit, it'll get thrown out of court PDQ. This is not like Microsoft vs. Netscape, where two behemoths could afford to keep trading legalese blows for months.
I don't think any higher-education institution today can afford not to protect its research and intellectual property. Talk to Harvard, they are protecting their research from every angle -- even Harvard Business School case studies (which are predominantly used by other educational institutions for coursework) are protected and charged for. I'm sure folks at Stanford, regardless of the standard "official" response, regret their policies that allowed Sergey and Larry to develop their idea while at the University and then develop Google as a private company. Stanford arguably owns some of the work product from their research performed on their property and using their resources, while in a course of study for which they were being paid (a stipend). The case of Sun Microsystems is similar. Andy Bechtolsheim developed his idea of UNIX workstations while doing research at Stanford, and even developed his initial prototypes using spare parts from the University's IT department. I don't believe any royalty payments went to Stanford for that "funded" ( :-) ) research work product. Ironic.
I did some research for a large telco, where every little innovation got patented as a matter of course. They called it the price of doing business to protect their work product. And, by the way, the researcher doesn't usually profit from a patent in R&D units like that firm had, either. I don't think any research University can afford not to protect its commercializable research any more.
Who knows why they're only suing Google? The story going around is that someone (from another law firm) saw a presentation by Google on their search algorithm, and notified Jarg that it was strikingly similar to their patented technology. A small firm like Jarg probably doesn't have enough funds to fight all of them at the same time, so they're starting with Google.
If the case is without merit, it'll get thrown out of court PDQ. This is not like Microsoft vs. Netscape, where two behemoths could afford to keep trading legalese blows for months.
I don't think any higher-education institution today can afford not to protect its research and intellectual property. Talk to Harvard, they are protecting their research from every angle -- even Harvard Business School case studies (which are predominantly used by other educational institutions for coursework) are protected and charged for. I'm sure folks at Stanford, regardless of the standard "official" response, regret their policies that allowed Sergey and Larry to develop their idea while at the University and then develop Google as a private company. Stanford arguably owns some of the work product from their research performed on their property and using their resources, while in a course of study for which they were being paid (a stipend). The case of Sun Microsystems is similar. Andy Bechtolsheim developed his idea of UNIX workstations while doing research at Stanford, and even developed his initial prototypes using spare parts from the University's IT department. I don't believe any royalty payments went to Stanford for that "funded" (
I did some research for a large telco, where every little innovation got patented as a matter of course. They called it the price of doing business to protect their work product. And, by the way, the researcher doesn't usually profit from a patent in R&D units like that firm had, either. I don't think any research University can afford not to protect its commercializable research any more.
