IP Firm Sues Over Core Products from Dell, Acer, Asus
A patent licensing company has hit Acer, Gateway, Acer as well as Dell with a patent infringement lawsuit that targets most of their product offerings.
In three separate filings, Round Rock Research claims that Acer, Gateway and Dell are violating eight of its patents, while Asus is infringing on nine.
All patents appear to have been acquired by Round Rock Research in a package deal from Micron on December 23, 2009. They affect inventions that were filed with the U.S. Patent Office between 1992 to 2005. The eight patents mentioned in the suit mainly refer to memory and storage technologies and include:
5,255,109: Heat dissipating LCD display
5,781,174: Image synthesizer and image pointing system
5,938,764: Apparatus for improved storage of computer system configuration information
5,991,843: Method and system for concurrent computer transaction processing
6,002,613: Data communication for memory
7,138,823: Method of generating a pulsed output signal from a periodic ramp signal and a reference voltage, and a switch mode power converter
7,285,979: Apparatus and method for independent control of on-die termination for output buffers of a memory device
7,389,369: Active termination control
The ninth patent played against Asus describes a "passivation planarization" technology that refers to a CMOS imaging device with a passivation layer providing a surface for a filter array.
Dell is accused of infringing the patents with its entire product line, including smartphones, tablets, notebooks, desktop and workstation systems computers. The suit targets Acer's H243 LCD, as well as the Aspire and Predator notebooks and Revo and Veriton desktop systems. The affected Asus devices include the VW246H LCD, the Essentio andd Eee desktop computers, all notebooks, T and R series servers and all motherboards manufactured by the company.
Acer, Asus and Dell declined to comment on the suit.
Someone obviously doesn't like Acer.
Someone obviously doesn't like Acer.
how daRe they! patent tRoll Rises again.
I'm tarting to worry if I'm infringing on any patents by the way I put on my pants...
Man how I hate these companies.
Then put the lawyers that filed it in jail.
Then right next to them, put the person(s) at the patent office that keeps allowing the VERY GENERAL patents to keep being approved.
This looks like a case of a "defensive" patent being turned into a "troll" patent through a sale. And what if Micron's technology uses these patents too (which for some of them it might)? Do they too have to license or get sued? Or was part of the deal that they continue to possess an unlimited number of self-use licenses for an unlimited duration of time?
It's like this company looked at all of the patents noted in a computer's getting started guide, scanned the patent filings from Micron to see whether they had any being "used" and not listed, and then offered to buy those from Micron for the sole purpose of suing Acer, Dell, Asus, Gateway, and maybe even Acer a second time if they're so inclined.
Perhaps patents should be non-transferrable? In other words, "Use it or lose it."
Mr. Gerard deBlasi, the VP of licensing, also appears to have held a position as EVP, Licensing at IPValue Management, Inc. So either he's done this before, or the company changed names, or his linked-in is out-of-date, or he's moonlighting.
The VP of S&M, Mr. Burris, doesn't appear as quickly on any rapid searches. Odd for a sales and marketing guy to be that poorly marketed on the internet.
Lovely people. It is so wonderful that Irene didn't manage to flood their office and destroy their records on its way by.
They know it is a frivolous lawsuit, so they needed to wait for some precedence, once the first frivolous lawsuit made it through all hell broke loose.
They really should do some research. Asus had a licensing agreement with Micron that permitted them to manufacture their products. Unless Asus was notified that their previous license agreement was null and void (as required by law), the patent trolls don't really have a leg to stand on. They were required by law to contact all effected companies at the time they purchased the patents. Also, the new owners of said patents have no legal rights to any profits from products produced/marketed prior to their purchasing of said patents.
"Dear [CEO of micron]:
We are a prosperous and enterprising intellectual property company specializing in maximizing the profitability of 3rd party IP portfolios. If you will allow us to purchase your patent IP, specifically (...), we will grant you a ... license to continue to use your patents. We will also pass on to you x% of any lawsuit and royalty revenue we make with said patent.
By the way, you are currently infringing upon our patents (a, b, and c), so if you do not accept this proposal we will simply get our money in court. Either way, we win. You lose."
And IIRC, that was about the wording that the communist used before the president told him, "Get off of my plane."
Now, that's MY PATENT. Remove your pants.
Round Rock simply sounds ridiculous.