Innovatio ramps up patent lawsuits - against those who use wi-fi, home users could be next

[The Straight Story]

Delaware company Innovatio IP Ventures, LLC is scaling up its patent litigation assault against businesses that offer wireless Internet to customers, filing six infringement lawsuits this month against individual branches of some of the country’s largest hotel chains. It’s a new tack for the company, which began filing patent claims in March against coffee shops and restaurant chains, including Caribou Coffee, Cosí and Panera Bread Co., and department stores.

Contemplating the company’s approach – suing the users of the technology rather than its manufacturers – a logical question emerges: Will the onslaught reach the front doors of average, WiFi-using, American households?

At least not “at this stage” of Innovatio’s “systematic campaign,” said Matthew McAndrews, a partner at Chicago-based law firm Niro, Haller & Niro, and the lead litigator for Innovatio in its infringement lawsuits. McAndrews’ firm specializes in patent enforcement work for small plaintiffs. Since March, McAndrews has filed 13 infringement suits in all on behalf of Innovatio, according to PACER, the federal lawsuit database.

“Innovatio has made a strategic and business judgment at this stage that it doesn’t intend to pursue residential use of WiFi,” McAndrews said during a phone conversation last week. (Niro’s offices in downtown Chicago are located about five blocks away from Innovatio’s office. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows another address for Innovatio, in a house at the end of a cul-de-sac in Ladera Ranch, Calif.)

....

The company is demanding a one-time lump sum licensing payment between $2,300 and $5,000 from each of the several hundred defendants targeted in its lawsuits, McAndrews said. Some of the defendants have already settled, he added.

http://patentexaminer.org/2011/09/innovatios-infringement-suit-rampage-expands-to-corporate-hotels/

[ElboRuum]

1. Most people will give this a "yeah, whatever",,,

But the implications of the actions of these "patent trolls" are far reaching. It basically sets the foundation for a strategy which could be used against individual users of technology bringing legal jeopardy into individual homes. Homes which, oft times, don't have the financial resources to resist this "bully litigation".

[phantom power]

2. I wonder how many times bullshit like this has to happen before...

our fearless leaders fix or abolish our utterly broken patent system?

oh never mind, look what I'm saying.
x(

[RC]

3. If Innovatio actually had a leg to stand on, the would be going after the manufactures.

They do not, so they go after the resource deficient small businesses.

The article is correct, if they get away with this, the individual is next, maybe even down to anyone with a wireless router in their home.

[hunter]

4. More dumb-shit software patents that ought never have been granted.

The patent system is broken. The bar for winning a patent needs to be set much higher. Patents were meant to encourage innovation, not stifle it.

I support Free and Open Source software and hardware for many reasons; partly because it makes me happy to see patent trolls melt away in the sunlight of prior art.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. Who is "Innovatio IP Ventures"... what did thay invent/patent... and what is the alleged violation?

From what I can gather, people are getting sued for offering free wifi access.
Did Innovatio IP Ventures patent free wifi or the internet?

[The Straight Story]

6. “Redundant Radio Frequency Network Having A Roaming Terminal Communication Protocol.”

No. 6,714,559 (“the ‘559 Patent”) titled “Redundant Radio Frequency Network
Having A Roaming Terminal Communication Protocol.” A copy of the ‘559
Patent is attached as Exhibit A.

“Communication Network Having Plurality Of
Bridging Nodes Which Transmit A Beacon To Terminal Nodes In Power Saving
State That It Has Messages Awaiting Delivery.” A copy of the ‘366 Patent is
attached as Exhibit E.

“Communication Network Having A Plurality Of Bridging Nodes Which Transmit A Beacon To Terminal Nodes In Power
Saving State That It Has Messages Awaiting Delivery.” A copy of the ‘311 Patent
is attached as Exhibit G.


and more:

http://ia600405.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.ilnd.253349/gov.uscourts.ilnd.253349.1.0.pdf

[stranger81]

12. Dollars to donuts, Innovatio invented nothing at all.

They probably bought a bunch of shitty paper patents and are now suing any corporation they can under those patents, regardless of whether they have a viable infringement read.

Yes, I'm a patent litigator. Yes, I hate patent trolls.

[saras]

7. The patent should have been refused for prior art.

[madfloridian]

8. Could you clarify?

I don't understand what it is they don't want people to do with wi fi.

[The Straight Story]

9. They don't want people to use it unless they pay them

at least it appears that way, PDF of one of their claims:

http://ia600405.us.archive.org/3/items/gov.uscourts.ilnd.253349/gov.uscourts.ilnd.253349.1.0.pdf

[toddwv]

10. They are a patent troll.

A company that has NO product but decides to assert some broad patent that they feel covers someone else's product. These trolls have established a "business" model of either going after smaller companies with no capacity to mount a legal defense or asking a relatively small amount of money from larger companies so that they will just pay to have it swept under the rug.

[stranger81]

11. Innovatio is a patent troll. Their business model is essentially a shakedown.

Home WiFi users don't have the kind of assets a company like Innovatio targets, and they don't have the kind of incentive Innovatio's corporate targets have to agree to a nuisance value settlement.

Innovatio and other trolls like it will never go after individual, non-corporate infringers because there's no money in that game.

[PETRUS]

13. The patent system is a joke

It is tantamount to awarding monopolies to private, for profit interests. There are better ways to encourage and reward innovation. The patent holders are rarely the inventors, by the way. They get bought out, or the real work is done by someone on salary.