A bunch of folks have been sending in the news of Xerox’s patent lawsuit against Google and Yahoo over search technology, and I’d debated posting it at all. It’s the same old story. A company widely considered a has-been goes searching through its patents, on technology it did nothing at all with, and sues other companies who had the same idea and actually went forward and implemented it successfully. Yet another case of “those who can’t innovate, litigate.”
But what caught my attention was Xerox’s given reason for pursuing the lawsuit:
“We believe we have no option but to file suit to properly protect our intellectual property.”
Sorry, but that’s no reason to file a lawsuit. It’s a common cliche in patent lawsuits, but it’s totally bogus. Of course you have other options. There is no rule that you have to file a lawsuit to “protect” the patent. There is no “protecting” that needs to be done. This is just a blatant attempt to squeeze money out of companies who actually implemented a product where Xerox failed. That’s not protecting, it’s shaking down.
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