
Twitter Gets Sued For Letting Famous People Interact Online - bjonathan
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/20/twitter-lawsuit-vs-technologies/
======
ErrantX
Reading the actual patent
([http://www.google.com/patents?id=e-ULAAAAEBAJ&printsec=a...](http://www.google.com/patents?id=e-ULAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4&source=gbs_overview_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false)
), seems dubious (well, it's dubious full stop..)

My brief reading of it seems to me that the patent is quite specific about
categorising celebs into their "fields", it also talks about biographical
details as a key part.

I think they are trying to force their patent to fit Twitters model, and it
doesn't really fit.

~~~
jdp23
When I saw the headline my first thought was "more TechCrunch hyperbole." But
it's true. The patent's title really is "Method and system for creating an
interactive virtual community of famous people”.

Anyhow, that's how I read it too: all the independent claims seem to start
with (a) selecting a field of endeavor and (b) compiling a list before doing
stuff creating the community, which is not how Twitter works. If that's all
there is, Twitter should ask the judge to sanction VS' lawyers for bringing a
frivolous claim.

~~~
robinwauters
When I saw this comment my first thought was "more TechCrunch bashing". But
it's not. Rare these days :)

~~~
jdp23
to be honest the when I followed the link I expected to find another
opportunity for TechCrunch bashing. i was pleasantly surprised to discover it
was just a great headline on a well-reported article.

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alexandros
The interesting thing here is that Twitter hasn't even infringed by design.
The celebrity culture is more a matter of who happened to find the service
useful. If you can be sued for something you didn't even implement but is an
artefact of how your platform is utilised by users, well, there's a problem.

What's next, suing Apple because consumers can stick an iPad to their fridge
therefore infringing on 'System and method for affixing a touchscreen to a
refrigeration device'?

~~~
corin_
While they may not have designed the system specifically for it, they've
certainly done their best to capitalise on it, including (for example)
advertisments such as the one in TC's image, which I imagine is what the
patent troll will use to justify the claim.

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ZeroMinx
How many of these examples do we need to see before something is done with the
US patent system?

~~~
chapel
Probably not until the Government gets served papers for something they are
doing that infringes on a random patent some troll is holding.

At this point most companies consider it cost of doing business; changing it
could possibly weaken or remove the leverage they have with their patent
warchest.

~~~
cosgroveb
You mean Senator. The Government has sovereign immunity, but if a ridiculous
patent were to seriously threaten the family business of a sitting Senator we
might see something get done.

~~~
duke_sam
Possibly patents on methods of raising money online for political campaigns or
patenting a method for organising large groups of people to congregate in a
public area for the purposes of hearing political speech.

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vaksel
I think the main problem with patents like this is that there is no
accountability.

If the person who granted such a ridiculous patent was fired for negligence,
maybe it'd motivate them to be a little more strict

~~~
kj12345
Or maybe give the judge the option of ruling that the patent holder is abusing
the patent system, the penalty for which would be releasing their patent
portfolio into the public domain.

~~~
ohashi
I approve of this idea. It would need a good way to hunt down real owners
behind shell companies and such though to make sure they aren't just cheating.

~~~
Natsu
Yeah, because if the judge could do that, they'd just set up shell companies
that only own one patent, but which funnel the rewards of litigation back to
their masters.

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fakelvis
The patent in question: <http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=e-ULAAAAEBAJ>

A cursory browse will show that this is as expected: a wide-ranging patent
that shouldn't have been granted in its submitted state.

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noonespecial
Of course it's ridiculous. They are hoping that twitter just pays them to go
away. If it loks like twitter has a backbone and it's going to actual court,
they can just drop the case. Why not? It's free to try.

~~~
stanleydrew
Well not entirely free. It will cost them something in court and legal fees
right?

~~~
jat850
It depends. I am not a lawyer, and certainly not an American torts expert (or
a tort expert in any nation) but I believe that certain states have statutes
in place that allow the judge discretion in assigning the defendant's legal
fees to the plaintiff, if the defendant wins the case.

~~~
stanleydrew
Right, but the suggestion was that it's free to try, even if the case ends up
being thrown out.

~~~
jat850
You are right - my mistake. I misread the original post as it being "free" for
Twitter to allow it to go to court and run their defense against the lawsuit
from there. Did not realize that the OP was implying free from the plaintiff's
perspective. Sorry about that!

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joebananas
Surely this patent would run into 1st amendment issues were it ever to go to
court?

~~~
chopsueyar
How so?

~~~
joebananas
They're basically saying they have exclusive rights to people disclosing
biographical information about themselves in an online community.

~~~
chopsueyar
I would go with prior art versus first amendment issues.

I am not aware of constitutional amendments being used to invalidate patents.
Although, if anyone has any links to such, I would be quite interested.

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iwwr
Not a week goes by without another piece of news revealing the idiocy (or
evilness) of patent law.

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macov
The problem with the patent system is that you can patent things that do not
exist. Is it ridiculous?

~~~
snorkel
Agreed. A more sane patent system would require a working demonstration, and
further require that the demonstration must be performed each time the patent
holder claims infringement. Any idea that can not be readily demonstrated in a
practical sense should not be patentable.

No demo, no patent.

~~~
nitrogen
What about things that are beyond the current technology, like Babbage's
analytical engine? In general I agree with you, but should a numerical
simulation or logical proof of feasibility be able to substitute for a demo?

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TheUSMarshall
This is the equivalent of patenting the concept of product endorsements - i.e.
if Wheaties had a patent on celebrities endorsing cereal. It seems that this
patent would infringe on the freedom of the "celebrity" to choose how they
want to connect with their fans.

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srram
Please stop this discussion, otherwise I will have to sue all of you based on
my patent on virtual communities commenting on patent lawsuits on virtual
communities

~~~
caf
...and now that you've informed us, it's wilful infringement - double damages!

~~~
A1kmm
Triple: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Damages>

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mlimm
Patent troll

Take a look at "VS Technologies" website here -
<http://www.vstinfo.com/index.htm>. Looking at the source code it was built
with Microsoft Frontpage 5.0 ... nice.

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nickolai
is the concept of "Using legal action to enforce nonsensical patents"
patentable ?

~~~
frisco
See: Halliburton's Patent Trolling Patent

[http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Se...](http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-
bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20080270152&OS=20080270152&RS=20080270152)

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zmonkeyz
Invalidated by newsgroups and Jeffrey Dahmers posts.

~~~
rayval
Another example of prior art would be the Electric Minds community, which was
an offshoot of the Well in the mid-90s, and took the best and brightest people
in certain fields to moderate online communities within that topic area. The
people were "famous" in a certain space (although not to the average person-
in-the-street).

See <http://www.rheingold.com/electricminds/html/>

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cookiecaper
I love how all of the figures on the patent are flowcharts.

