zakhal
SasqWatch
This week the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a surprisingly (although I guess it shouldn't be) broad patent for a "mobile entertainment and communication device". Upon closer inspection you may notice that it pretty much outlines the ubiquitous smartphone concept. "It's a patent for a mobile phone with removable storage, an internet connection, a camera and the ability to download audio or video files.
The patent holding firm who has the rights to this patent wasted no time at all. At 12:01am Tuesday morning, it filed three separate lawsuits against just about everyone you can think of, including Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, ATT, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, Samsung and a bunch of others. Amusingly, the company actually first filed the lawsuits on Monday, but realized it was jumping the gun and pulled them, only to refile just past the stroke of midnight.
In 1997 they filed a patent for "phone". Then every 6 months they added whatever new features appeared on the market in the last 6 months. Those features were researched, engineered and built by someone else. They kept doing this, twice a year, for ten years. Then they closed the application and now they have a patent for everything.
The simple fact is if they can get the patent and then makes tons of money for not doing anything then they are going to keep on doing it.