I read Matt Blumberg’s post on Silly, Silly Patent Nonsense this morning. It concerns a bulk email patent that was issued in 2003 that is being used to sue InfoUSA for patent infringement . Matt doesn’t have the detailed data, nor do I, but if it’s true I’ve got to believe it’s totally bogus.
I was involved in a patent suit of bulk email in the 1990’s. I am aware of prior art dating back to the 1980’s. The chance of there being anything non-obvious here is approximately zero. My suit settled for $1 and a cross-license after $1 million of aggregate attorney’s fees and a bunch of unnecessary hard feelings (some of which have cleared due to the fundamental good karma of some of the people involved.)
I despise this stuff. Hopefully the facts will come out in the next few days that nothing of this sort is going on. But – if it is – I volunteer to be an expert witness in the case.