Man Patents Entire Internet, Sues Youtube, Google, Yahoo, Digg, eBaum's and Others...
Thursday, July 31st, 2008, 04:00pm EDT
Sheldon Goldberg, the infamous patent hoarder that made the EFF's Top 10 Most Wanted (http://w2.eff.org/patent/), has made headlines again. This time, he's claiming that 2 of his patents cover the basic network architecture that comprises the internet as we know it today. And he means business; he's going after the biggest websites in the world, naming eBaum's World, Google, Youtube, Yahoo, AOL, Digg, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNET, The Weather Channel and others in a lawsuit filed originally last year. (http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-txedce/case_no-2:2007cv00263/case_id-103830/)

The 2 patents in question are nos. 6,712,702 (Method and system for playing games on a network) and 6,183,366 (Network gaming system). Don't let the gaming related patent names fool you, he's spinning these patents to encompass all aspects of basic networking. Here are some of the ridiculous claims found in these patents:

'702 Patent - Claim 53
"An apparatus for a service on a communications network"

'366 Patent - Claim 1
"An apparatus for presenting one of products and services while providing an interactive informational service on a network"

To make matters worse, he filed the suit in the Eastern District of Texas, a division notorious for their favoritism toward patent hoarders:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060203/0332207.shtml

http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech-S...mp;a=f&a=f)

We hope that the Judge in East Texas will realize that you can't simply turn a terribly antiquated patent for blackjack over a network into a patent on networking as a whole.

Some people just need to be shot on fucking sight....

that is all.



some people just need to be shot fucking dead on sight for being so fucking.......

Oh noes! He'll have the Internets all to himself!

Ummm yeah, I think he might be reaching a little bit.

But I can't complain about what he is doing (enforcing his patents), considering this is, well, my line of work. However, we don't reach beyond our patent claims like this guy.


Ah, I thought I had heard about this guy before... I wonder why it took so long for Digg to post this article? This lawsuit was filed last year.

Your a "patent enforcer"??? How does that work? Do you have "bones" you have to earn, or is it more of a lawyer type thing?

I wonder...

Does this mean Brophy's thread about the Canadians taking over teh internets is no longer a threat?

We have a patent portfolio. We hire attorneys to enforce our patents.

I just wanna know how you get to this guys level of "Batshit fucking Crazy".......

In all honesty... most likely... his lawyers have convinced him that he has a claim that covers something that might not be there. IP lawyers can get a little over the top and start reading things that aren't there. And what better way to gamble, than with other people's property? (intellectual property in this case) Most people can't afford to hire attorneys to represent themselves in a patent suit. So enter the contingent fee contract. "We'll represent you for 25-50% of what you win!" The payouts can be astronomical... these attorneys can earn 2/3/4/10/20 times their billing rates depending on the outcome. That's why they do it... So what do they do? Here's an example...

Someone comes up with an absurdly broad patent, but weak patent (such as the one in this story). They file a lawsuit against 50 companies claiming that each one owes the inventor millions of dollars. Of course the plaintiff and his attorneys are always open to settling out of court, right?. Negotiations begin... now the companies are faced with a business decision. Do they spend $2+ million defending a patent lawsuit and filing counter claims of invalidity (and POSSIBLY lose and have to pay a settlement and possibly ongoing royalties?), or do they settle out of court for $1-1.5 million? If you can get them all to do that... now you're talking about $50-75 million dollars (or at LEAST half of that after the lawyers cut).

Now let me ask you... is this dude still batshit fucking crazy? Now I'm not saying that google won't fight this to the end and invalidate or lose or whatever... because I'd bet that there are several who will dig their heels in and fight. But let me ask, would you let your name be dragged through the mud (media) as a crazy business man who has an off the wall claim for the possibility of making $25+ mil? That's a lot of dough. And to top it off, thei guy I am sure thinks he has a legitimate claim.

IP lawyers are some of the (if not THE) highest paid lawyers... and have a tendency to reach. We've definitely had lawyers like that... that made us big promises and seemd to be reaching and shit... We are in a better place now with good, solid, reasonable (and less expensive) attorneys. We also don't have weak patents, and don't make outrageous claims... but being in this industry... we hear about clowns like this all the time.

Oh yeah!?!?! WTF do you know!?!?!

Nothing. But that all sounded cool, right?