infringement

Well, it looks like Google has received a nice bit of holiday cheer from British Telecom (BT). Jolly good show? Not so! BT is suing Google for infringing six of its patents . This action follows a long line of recent litigation involving Android technology, and additional Google applications are targeted. Here at M·CAM, we’re feeling a bit knackered in hearing about broad scope patent infringement, however, it is our duty to shed light on absurdity.

So let’s pretend for a moment that you’re the Grinch. You’ve stolen all the presents. You’ve smashed all the ornaments. You’ve ruined Christmas for all the Hoos in Hooville (we are in Charlottesville, after all). But then your heart grew, your attitude changed, and now you want to show the world what “reformed Grinch” looks like. So you give all the presents back. You remake the tree. All of Hooville loves you.

Apple has conveniently decided to pop back into the news – and just in time for the holidays! No, we’re not talking about the coverage of Apple’s less-than-stellar Black Friday/Cyber-Monday deals. (Honestly, who can blame them for wanting to save money, since they’re funding over 20 lawsuits around the world – and that’s just with Samsung.) We’re also not talking about the U.S.

With Thanksgiving feasts fully digested, fueling the shopping frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, we are thankfully lighter of over $50 billion in unwanted cash that was weighing us down. And here at M·CAM, we’re in the process of donning our kerchiefs, caps and settling into the languorous, hot-chocolate aided stupor that precedes the last holiday rush of the year. Time to crack open a nostalgic tale of Dickens’ Christmas Carol….

But wait, this isn’t the Christmas Carol! No, it’s Oliver Twist.

Every so often, an unsuspecting company becomes ensnared in the patent world, sometimes unwittingly. Like a saber tooth tiger blissfully wandering into the La Brea tar pits, its inaugural foray into this ferocious world can lead to becoming lunch or, in some cases, infect them to become perpetrators downstream. Fresh from Groupon’s IPO, the fangs are coming out… and there’s more fangs than mouths – but we’ll get to that a bit later on.