Kindle Fire Tablet Already Hit by Patent Troll
I suppose Amazon should have known better. Once you enter the tablet game, all eyes start looking at you in ways they haven’t before and suddenly being accused of ‘patent infringement’ in some way or another almost becomes a matter of course.
Such is the fate of the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s 2-week-old bouncing baby tablet. (a device that has been made available for pre-order but hasn’t even been delivered into consumer hands just yet)
Acacia Research Corporation has accused Amazon of violating at lease two patents (and as many as four), including having implemented a “System And Method For Displaying And Manipulating Multiple Calendars On A Personal Digital Assistant.” as well as another that affects touchscreens that can be “written on”.
Becoming well known as a patent troll, Acacia Research Corporation has pending lawsuits against Apple as well as several other technology manufacturers. This isn’t surprising when you look and see that this is a company that makes money based on owning ideas that other people have come up with –they buy other company’s intellectual property and then license it out as required.
So why go after the Kindle Fire? It might be because of the expectation that the device will be wildly successful and become the largest competitor of Apple’s iPad. It might be because they feel Amazon has deep pockets and makes a good target. Either way, it seems particularly interesting given that the accusations made could easily have been directed at any of the tablet manufacturers as nearly every device includes the features described in their complaint.
The other consideration is that they are starting their attack with Amazon because they feel it is the easiest case to win and would set a precedent. No matter what, I think we can all agree that we are becoming rather tired of patent infringement lawsuits!
So did they infringe? From my vantage point it is impossible to tell. Patent law is complicated and seemingly almost random in interpretation.
[via Boy Genius Report]