IBM is Acting No Better Than Patent Trolls, Preying on Smaller Companies by Suing Them With Software Patents
No Red Hat employee should tolerate this aggression by the employer
Red Hat has been fending off patent trolls lately, essentially by filing lawsuits, but what's the full picture?
Well, the full picture is quite bad because Red Hat/IBM is a big part of the problem and this new verdict is a reminder of that. The following article says "IBM wins $44.9 million patent infringement suit against Zynga," but why was such a lawsuit filed in the first place? The IBM vultures looking for ways to take the money of other companies? Using software patent aggression?
Reuters reports tech company IBM won its lawsuit against mobile developer Zynga, which it sued over patent infringement in 2022.Two years ago, IBM claimed the Farmville creator was misusing its "foundational" web technology, including data capture and analytics. The two companies had reportedly been negotiating a license since 2014, but those talks repeatedly fell through.
That last sentence suggests that IBM is still doing a patent shakedown - with controversial if not illegal software patents - behind the scenes. So who knows how many firms just quietly settle to be left alone.
IBM behaves no better than a patent troll. It's just a lot bigger.
IBM did this also after buying Red Hat (we covered many examples over the years), so Red Hat employees share buildings with mobsters.
This other report, "Zynga Ordered To Pay IBM $45 Million", repeats the claim that "Zynga said that the patents were invalid" (if they're software parents, then the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) should not have granted these in the first place).
Seeing how IBM lobbies against 35 U.S.C. § 101 and how IBM/Microsoft exercise control over the USPTO (personnel-wise), we have no choice but to treat IBM as "part-time" enemy (only part because they also employ some Linux developers).
To quote:
Zynga, the developer behind games like Farmville, Words with Friends and more, has been ordered to pay IBM $45 million. The verdict comes from a patent infringement lawsuit filed by IBM in 2022.According to the verdict from a federal jury in Delaware, United States, it was determined that Zynga violated IBM’s patent rights on its “foundational” technology. The verdict states that Zynga violated two IBM patents.
The first patent, the “849 Patent“, involves a “method for presenting advertising in an interactive service provided on a computer network”. The other patent, the “719 Patent”, concerns a dual model-view-control development approach of an application.
For its defense, Zynga said that the patents were invalid. The company is expected to appeal the decision.
Looking at comments in this forum (see this thread for instance), it seems even former IBM workers are disgusted by what the company had become.
IBM is a predatory, greedy entity that cheats and lies. It even attacks its very own workers. █