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By tmouse on 3/24/2010 8:07:58 AM , Rating: 2
I guess someone should have told Dell, Intel, AMD and Sony. They have played against the big boys and won before, sounds like they do their homework before they sue. On another note people seem to assume a company wakes up one morning and just files a law suit. Some of these cases follow years of negotiations with the companies involved. So in these cases many of these devices were probably just released and shortly thereafter they were notified about the potential patent infringements and now it's gotten to the point where the companies are getting sued. Also most large companies either have or retain large patent law firms to look for prior art before they go forward, in many of these cases they either go forward with the belief the holders are gone or too poor to press the issue or they honestly believe their solutions are different enough. I really do not think the term patent troll applies here; to me a troll is a company that is formed JUST to harvest patents from those desperately in need of cash and then wait to catch potential infringers. I know for a fact Big blue has a huge legal division that just combs new inventions and patents looking for potential infringement. When the find it they generally have numerous patents (they have been #1 in patents for over a quarter of a century with over 4000 per year) and send a letter listing the patents along with a license agreement. They are usually reasonable with their licenses and their portfolio is a good revenue source for them. I am reasonably sure these other companies do the same so rarely are they completely unaware, it's in their own best interests to keep abreast of what's going on.

