Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Patent-holding company TQP Development made millions claiming that it owned a breakthrough in Web encryption, even though most encryption experts had never heard of the company until it started a massive campaign of lawsuits. Yesterday, the company's litigation campaign was brought to an end when a panel of appeals judges refused (PDF) to give TQP a second chance to collect on a jury verdict against Newegg.
The TQP patent was invented by Michael Jones, whose company Telequip briefly sold a kind of encrypted modem. The company sold about 30 models before the modem business went bust. Famed patent enforcer Erich Spangenberg bought the TQP patent in 2008 and began filing lawsuits, saying that the Jones patent actually entitled him to royalties on a basic form of SSL Internet encryption. Spangenberg and Jones ultimately made more than $45 million from the patent.
TQP appealed its case, and oral arguments were heard at the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on February 8. Yesterday, the three-judge panel found in Newegg's favor, issuing a short two-page order that did not explain its reasoning. While TQP could theoretically still appeal to the full Federal Circuit or to the Supreme Court, it's far from clear there's any legal issue in the case that would compel either of those bodies to take the case.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Wednesday March 01 2017, @04:36PM
It was built on prior art, just as damn near every other "invention" is.
No need to put "invention" in quotes, because that's what invention is. Like Newton said, quoting someone who lived over five hundred years earlier, "If I see further than other men, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants."
The arts are like that as well; the new is always built on the old. Imagine how technological progress would suffer if patents lasted as long as copyrights? That's how literature and especially music are suffering. Just be glad the Bono Act didn't cover hardware!
That law should have never been passed, and should be repealed.
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