Google Sued Over Talk

Google Sued Over Talk

stncttr908 on 02 January 2006 - 20:22 · 49 comments & 5929 views

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Rates Technology (RTI), a company that owns several internet voice communication patents, is suing Google for $5 billion claiming the search giants' Google Talk software uses two RTI patented technologies without licensing them. The suit, filed in October in US District Court in the Eastern District of New York, seeks damages in compensation for "irreparable damages" caused to RTI. Court papers claim RTI had notified Google of the infringement and offered to drop legal action had Google agreed to license the technologies, but the offer was refused. In response RTI is demanding a trial by jury to settle the matter in court.

Google spokesman Steve Langdon has said the company believes the lawsuit is "without merit" and plans to fight it.

News source: Techworld.com

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(3 replies) #1 p1p3 on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:28

Here we go again... Will this stupid patent suing ever stop?

#1.1 factoid on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:29

its a way to make money, and those will always be exploited... *sigh*

#1.2 Shining Arcanine on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:39

Aren't these "patented technologies" part of Jabber, and therefore they need to sue everyone who is developing Jabber for these irreparable damages too?

#1.3 The_Decryptor on 03 Jan 2006 - 01:47

*going by a slashdot post i read*

the "patented technologies" are actually part of the phone network, "least cost routing", all that means is it sends it down the cheapest line, and the last time i checked, GTalk couldn't call phones, only other GTalk users.

(3 replies) #2 GoogleNinja on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:33

$5 billion?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

#2.1 Jugalator on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:37

Almost...

We sue you for 5... BILLION... dollars!! Mwahahahahaha!!!

#2.2 blachole on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:52

Ya that number seems rediculous to me..are you sure its not a typo?

#2.3 zORYn on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:52

I like the "irreparable damages" part. I bet they couldn't create a program to make use of that patent, and their pride got "irreparably damaged"..

(2 replies) #3 Chicane-UK on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:37

What a bunch of losers.

Take a ticket, get in line - Google get sued all the time by lazy technology companies wanting a cut of their money. RTI deserves to get ploughed into the floor!

#3.1 threedaysdwn on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:28

I think Google is starting to understand the problems Microsoft faces every day.

#3.2 Shining Arcanine on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:41

Didn't the last major lawsuit Microsoft was in alter their stock price from going through the roof to falling rapidly? Maybe everyone with stock in Google should sell out now.

#4 miniM3 on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:51

sigh.... greedy little people. the usual.

#5 s0nic69 on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:58

no its not a type Blachole its 5 billion. I read this before, and man, thats a bit too much dont u guys think?

#6 TheTrainMan on 02 Jan 2006 - 20:58

They court should cut a deal - the $5 goes to cancer research or something - lets see if they want to sue after that!

#7 tunafish on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:08

well at least its not ms this time.....
but its lame that they have to.

(1 reply) #8 frogworm on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:18

that has got to be a typo. Google Talk is still in beta so damages would never be in the billions. probably meant to be $5 million.

#8.1 Shining Arcanine on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:42

It is called greed. It should be $5 million, but the greed factor altered the unit to the next one up.

#9 quanta on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:28

I thought Global IP Solutions powered the VoIP component in Gtalk...

(They also power the VoIP component in Skype)

#10 caveman017 on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:43

They wont get 5 billion. If they settle, more then likly it would be out of court for well under 100 million

#11 metallithrax on 02 Jan 2006 - 21:45

Either I can see into the future, or I have read this within the past week. Don't know whether it was on Neowin or not (and if it wasn't, why not?).

As I have said before in these types of cases, does the patent owner have the technology to hand or is it just an idea they had and patented? In this case, it seems they only have the idea of how to do it. They should been kicked out of court unless they can provide a working example of the technology.

(1 reply) #12 MNS on 02 Jan 2006 - 22:02

5 billion?

that's gotta be like half of Google's shares.

insane.

#12.1 Jeremy1 on 02 Jan 2006 - 22:23

It's more like 1/25 of Google's shares.

#13 vlsi0n on 02 Jan 2006 - 22:24

"I think Google is starting to understand the problems Microsoft faces every day."

That's the best way to sum this up

.

But 5 billion is just crazy, no way they'd get that. But when someone is in the wrong, then they are.. looks like Google might lose some money and get a license.

(1 reply) #14 Eli on 02 Jan 2006 - 22:35

I recently put a lawsuit against google because I like the letter O and they use it in their name. I'm asking for only 3 billion though.

#14.1 vancity001 on 03 Jan 2006 - 06:59

But they use it twice, so better make it 6

#15 Jonax on 02 Jan 2006 - 22:52

Y'know, this seemed to be a little more meaningful compared to other lawsuits. Until the "irrepairable damages" part came up - Head got laughed off then.

This screams a lot like compensation claims based on "damages to feelings". With luck, this case will be thrown out.

#16 xorian on 02 Jan 2006 - 22:54

"What intrigued me is that apparently RTI has no products... They exist to collect revenue from other companies.
... Rates Technologies has sued Nortel, Sharp Electronics and others."
Source

And it also says that they have agreements with over 76 large companies.
Sounds like -THE- dreamjob.. Doing nothing but sue and collect money from other companies.

And damn, $5 billion ($5 000 000 000!), they'll never get that amount of money. There's simply no one that stupid not to realize what kind of money wolves those guys from RTI really are, and what a weak case they have. They even want to bring it before a jury, which would benefits Google's case even MORE.

I wish companies like these would actually have to pay a refund to the company they sued when they lost their case due to obvious reasons, to compensate for all sorts of possible damages.. The patent-suing wave of the past few years would stop of decrease for sure.

Last edited by xorian on 03 Jan 2006 - 00:41

(1 reply) #17 rob.derosa on 02 Jan 2006 - 23:09

If google stole, shouldnt they be punished? The amount simply reflects their ability to pay as it were.

#17.1 MrCobra on 03 Jan 2006 - 07:55

Google didn't steal, they aquired it.

#18 EL on 02 Jan 2006 - 23:21

damn now im gonna sue google for my lunchmoney

#19 b0m8er on 03 Jan 2006 - 00:15

Nice to see some other company apart from Microsoft being sued :devil:

#20 csseale on 03 Jan 2006 - 00:23

well obviously google wasnt worried about it if they ignored their request, something tells me there is more to this than we know

(1 reply) #21 altermind on 03 Jan 2006 - 00:25

someone NEEDS to redo these damn patiant laws in america... casue this is just moronic... they should also limit how much someone can sue someone for.... 5 billion my ass.... google has made like what... 0 dollers off this product sofar =/

#21.1 SomeAzn on 03 Jan 2006 - 01:33

You do realize that judges and juries can reduce the amount awarded if needed.

Thats why there is no limit. Why should there be? You can sue anybody for an infinite amount of money but that doesn't mean you're going to get it.

Anyways, Google has made money on this product. At worst, they made goodwill (which is an actually calculatable amount of money).

#22 Colin-uk on 03 Jan 2006 - 00:52

at this rate Google & MS are going to be meeting each other coming in and out of court :/

(1 reply) #23 slimy on 03 Jan 2006 - 01:15

They haven't been sued yet, why does it say "sued"

#23.1 rob.derosa on 03 Jan 2006 - 01:34

if ur gonna be a grammar nazi, know what you are talking about

Sued can mean to start the process >

# Law.

1. To petition (a court) for redress of grievances or recovery of a right.
2. To institute proceedings against (a person) for redress of grievances.
3. To carry (an action) through to a final decision.

#24 Red Dragon on 03 Jan 2006 - 02:04

Why would google need to "steal" any technology anyway?

(1 reply) #25 jivemastert on 03 Jan 2006 - 02:10

hahaha, read about the patents here...
http://voip-blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehr...ti-patents.html

You'll find this as amusing as me if you'll notice that Google doesn't use phone lines or devices on the walljack to find the cheapest route... it just connects to the IP address. There is no carrier that it needs to examine, no device on the walljack, no billing system to analyze. Google is right, this lawsuit is unmerited and totally outrageous. Screw you RTI... burn in hell.

#25.1 MaX Velocity on 03 Jan 2006 - 17:38

Man RTI are stupid. They are gonna lose this case for sure, their just stiring it up to be "known" a little better.

(1 reply) #26 rIaHc3 on 03 Jan 2006 - 02:22

Ok lets see...

Google is big; Microsoft is big
Google is getting sued by everyone nowadays; Microsoft is getting sued by everyone nowadays
Google is known by everyone; Microsoft is known by everyone

Which leaves me to one thing:

Google needs its own Bill Gates.

#26.1 the_snitch on 03 Jan 2006 - 04:09

Google has Larry and Sergey. Two nice guys. Bill Gates is nice too. He constantly makes multi-million dollar donations to charities around the world.
These loser companies like RTI are just jealous they can't make money the old fashion way, and have to twist their worthless patents to sue other companies.

#27 YaddaMe on 03 Jan 2006 - 02:32

> RTI is demanding a trial by jury

And with that move, even if their claim was valid, they lost the case.

#28 mikeyj on 03 Jan 2006 - 03:36

Here we go again with this kind of bullshit law suit. If this was google or google's shares weren't so over price, would RTI be suing for 5 billion? It's is now confirmed that if your a big giant company that you will be sued even if you haven't done anything, people will simply sue you because you're a big company.

These patent lawsuits are far too common now.

#29 Aahz on 03 Jan 2006 - 09:30

Honestly, if someone messes up my 2gb+ of email then I will hunt you down and eat your children. :p

#30 icat on 03 Jan 2006 - 17:00

I hate idiots with their stupid cases like that. Why not give google a break, eh? Mircosft, that ppl, ha...

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Google Sued Over Talk

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