Patent Troll Sues Restaurants and Hotels Offering Wi-Fi, Copies RIAA's Slimy Tactics
Patent Troll Sues Restaurants and Hotels Offering Wi-Fi, Copies RIAA's Slimy Tactics
Posted 10/04/2011 at 10:07am
| by Brad Chacos
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Think Apple’s patent war against Samsung is ballsy and ridiculous? You’re right – it is. But there’s an even worse patent troll sculking around, and it’s much more sinister; while Apple and Microsoft are busy targeting other megacorporations, the Deleware-based Innovatio IP Ventures, LLC, is busy suing any mom-and-pop restaurant or hotel franchisee that offers Wi-Fi to its customers.
TechDirt pointed us towards UC Berkeley's The Patent Examiner, which broke the news. Innovatio purchased the set of 31 patents, which were originally owned by Broadcom, on February 28th. Less than a week later, it began its mass lawsuit spree, suing restaurant chains and coffee shops like Caribou Coffee and Panera Bread for unlicensed use of WLAN patents it claims to hold. In September, Innovatio spread the litigation love to 220 individual hotels in Illinois.
Like the RIAA, Innovatio (which ironically means “Innovation” in Latin) is using slimy tactics to get the businesses to pay up; litigation costs in a patent suit regularly costs thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars as the case runs its course. Innovatio’s offering “licensing deals” to allow businesses to continue offering Wi-Fi for $2,300 to $5,000 a pop. Theoretically, Innovatio’s claims could open the possibility of the firm suing everyday folks with Wi-Fi routers, though Matthew McAndrews, the group’s attorney, told The Patent Examiner that it had no plans to pursue residential customers at this stage. The details of the allegedly infringed patents are not currently available.
The brazen patent trolling has generated a major response from tech corporations; in May, Cisco and Motorola asked a Delware court to declare Innovatio’s patents invalid.
“Innovatio is in the business of enforcing and licensing patents,” the companies complain in, well, the complaint. “Innovatio does not sell or offer for sale any products.”
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scoop6274
October 05, 2011 at 8:00pm
Wow, this is a total load... All the restraunts and hotels being sued should band together and get a lawyer to fight this. It is ridiculous. Next thing you know, the RIAA is going to go around suing people for playing their music too loud and that others can hear it, so you should pay royalties for all the people that might have heard the music. And we wonder why America is falling behind. Its because we have companies like this who don't MAKE anything, they just sue people over something that someone else made but they own the rights to. I'm disgusted by this.
shuddle13
October 05, 2011 at 12:07pm
Innovatio’s claims could open the possibility of the firm suing everyday folks with Wi-Fi routers, though Matthew McAndrews, the group’s attorney, told The Patent Examiner that it had no plans to pursue residential customers at this stage
Anyone else concerned about that last part?
LatiosXT
October 05, 2011 at 8:27am
I don't get it, what do these patents protect? Sharing a resource?
CapitalistPig
October 04, 2011 at 10:28pm
I hold the patent on inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, for the purpose of sustaining life. I'm not totally heartless though. I will give licenses to the entire world- except the folks at Innovatio. I refuse to grant them a license, no matter the price. I will petition the courts for an immediate cease and desist order, preventing the violators for further infringement. Problem solved.
DaemonSeed
October 04, 2011 at 2:30pm
Strongly suggests twisting off of all Innovatio heads. And do make a point of putting them all on a no fly list. Parasites the lot of 'em. In fact put every single patent troll & mmpa & riaa scumbag on a no fly list, and ensure they get sent to someplace nasty.
Asterixx
October 04, 2011 at 2:28pm
It's actually exactly like legal extortion. Stories like this should be highly publicised, because if the general public became aware of this crap maybe they'd demand meaningful patent (and copyright) reform
*edit* Meant this to be a reply to colenol_keaney's post below
Guisano
October 04, 2011 at 1:44pm
"Innovatio (which ironically means “Innovation” in Latin)"
This is the way that MS and Apple innovate - via lawsuit. I hope someone bitch-slaps Innovatio out of business
Trooper_One
October 04, 2011 at 12:43pm
Another "Dr" Timothy Langdell of Edge in the making, this time, as as a souless 'limited' corporation.
These patent laws have done nothing to protect patent holders, allowed greedy owners to flourish, but also stifle innovation.
How do inventors supposed to grow with legitimate and manufactured products?
nsvander
October 04, 2011 at 12:20pm
I dont get how this company can sue other companies for broadcasting WiFi. All the affected companies had to purchase the equipment from somewhere to enable the WiFi, so they therefore bought the product and any royalties that were owed would have been covered with the initial purchase of this equipment right? Or am I missing something here?
Deviate
October 04, 2011 at 11:04am
Wow.
It's absoutely amazing how far people will go to try to make a buck.
Incognito
October 04, 2011 at 1:05pm
It's even more amazing that companies are dumb enough to pay the (albiet small) royaly instead of fighting it in court. When they win they could counter-sue for court costs and would probably put Innovatio out of business.
iheartpcs
October 04, 2011 at 10:51am
Actually, Innovatio in Latin means "Souless, greedy, scum-suckers"
Conal_keaney
October 04, 2011 at 10:25am
Our country's patent system seriously needs to be restructured. Things like this are getting out of hand. It's almost like legal extortion.
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