The most ridiculous patent litigation case ever?

Okay, this is a bit of a geeky post I must admit. Sometimes, just sometimes, I find the intellectual property industry very industry, especially when absurd cases like this come up. Before I tell you about, arguably, the most ridiculous patent litigation case ever I'll give you some background on the industry.

I'm sure you all know what a patent is, which you file in order to claim ownership of a particular item (usually for technology or pharmaceutical products). If someone infringes (uses without permission) on one of these items, you can thus sue them for compensation for loss of sales of your item, and for the fact that you are paying to officially patent an item and they are using it without paying you royalties.

Although this system is fantastic at protecting innovative ideas so that inventors can have sole rights to their original ideas, there are flaws to it. One of the biggest flaws falls under patent trolls (or non-practising entities if you want to be professional about it). This started small, with regular people patenting ideas that they had no intention of creating, just so they received some money for it if it ever happened. However, this quickly progressed into large companies being created to do this exact job - filing for patents with no intention of use to then litigate against larger companies. Companies such as Apple, Nokia, Pfizer etc are often at the top of the list for patent trolls, as the amount of money to be made can be billions of dollars.

These patent trolls are very clever, they know exactly how long to wait, what to say, and what to file to ensure success in these litigation cases. The frustration of these cases never ends, with the majority of them ending up successful, even if it is a fraction of the original compensation amounts.


However, every now and then, someone comes along with no idea what they're talking about and just take a shot in the dark! This week, this falls under the name of Thomas Ross - a guy from Florida suing Apple for $10 billion for a patent he actually never even held!

Apple are very often the target of litigation cases, predominately against competitors (i.e Samsung), but fairly often against non-practising entities. However, this week a patent troll has taken trolling to a new level, to the extent that we cannot help but laugh.

Here are the facts: 

- In 1992, a Florida man, Thomas Ross, filed a patent for an 'electronic reading device'. The patent envisioned a device that would combine media-browsing and communications with a touchscreen display. Ross’s sketches include a modem, disk drive, and solar panels.
- In 1995, the patent was classified 'abandoned' after Ross did not pay the fee to file the patent! This means this patent was never officially granted by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office.
- In 2014, the man filed a copyright for his drawings of the 'electronic reading device', despite the patent for this product being invalid.

In the eyes of a patent professional, this case seems ludicrous. However, Thomas Ross believes he is entitled $10 billion in damages for Apple copying his designs. Ross also strongly believes he was the first person “to have created a novel combination of media and communication tools.” On top of this $10 billion, Ross expects 0.5% of the profit from all future profits of the iPhone (around $3 billion a year). For the record, in our opinion, the original drawings look nothing like an iPhone, even if the patent/copyright design was successful!

Proof that patent trolls, professional or not, will literally try anything. Good luck to you Thomas Ross, but something tells us you aren't going to come away from this a multi-billionaire, and perhaps this could end up costing you more than it's worth!

Have a look for yourself, let me know what you think: 

Photo Credit: The Telegraph

Brexit: The reality

As a British citizen, the overwhelming political campaigns that have been taking place over the last few months had been taking over my life. On the one hand, there were 'leave' or 'brexit' campaign posters everywhere you turned; this 'campaign' in my opinion, was largely flawed and one sided. Then, there was the 'remaIN' campaign which I believe largely dominated social media and the younger generation

 As a university educated young woman, I would like to believe I can keep an open mind until weighing up all the facts and objectively working out what is best for myself and for the rest of the world. However, in this particular political decision, I really struggled to see both sides and ignore the ignorance and stupidity of some of the arguments the leave campaign broadcast. Let me give you one of the millions of examples of this misleading argument. "We send the EU £350 million: let's fund our NHS instead." Well, Boris/Nigel, you have most certainly misled the public with that one! 
#1 no attention has been paid to the amount of money that we get back from the EU - significantly more than the amount we put into it.
#2 the same day the results were announced in favour of leaving the EU, Nigel Farage himself stated that this money would not be going back into the NHS at all, and in fact it is unlikely that the NHS would improve at all through leaving the EU. Brilliant, well done on false information.

Photo credit: International Business Times

Another example of this campaign being flawed, is the racism attached to it. I read the other day a quote that I think sums it up perfectly "I am not saying that all Brexit supporters are racist, but I am adamant that all racists are Brexit supporters". The disgusting behaviour that has followed this campaign can be see in every news headline possible, because ignorant and uneducated idiots think we are "getting our country back" by "chucking out all the immigrants". Again, idiotic comments from misinformed and uneducated individuals. 

Photo Credit: The Independent 

Aside from the campaign, the point I am trying to make is there was no campaign necessary. The [vast majority] of people who voted for Britain to exit did not need a campaign, and instead made an, in my opinion, huge misjudgement based on racist agendas. 

The unfortunate reality is that the towns and cities that voted to remain [aside from Scotland and Northern Ireland] are predominately red brick university towns that are currently educating the elite of our country. These towns are as follows:

1) Newcastle

2) Hertfordshire

3) Lewes

4) Winchester

5) Bath

6) Cotswold

7) West & South Oxfordshire

8) Oxford

9) Cambridgeshire

10) London

11) Leeds

12) Windsor

13) York

To place this further into perspective, have a look at this demographic of which age group voted for which decision: 

The majority of leave voters were over the age of 50, with an average amount of years left to deal with the decision 25. This leaves the younger generation picking up the pieces of a racist and largely nazi-similar agenda. Fantastic. 

I could sit here for an hour with reasons to stay: Global warming prevention, LGBT+ rights, the economy, terrorism prevention, positive immigration, trade links... the list really does go on. s. And yet I, a university graduate, can discover no legitimate reason to leave the EU - despite a 'majority' vote believing so. Almost every industry is affected by this decision, from the finance sector to the intellectual property industry - everyone will see the consequence

The campaigns are over, and I am not here to sit and try to convince anyone of the reasons to stay - it is too late. Instead, I am here expressing my disgust at the nation that I live and support that such a decision has been made. I can only hope that we have the chance to rejoin the EU one day, to be a united front and make the world a better place. The world we live in right now is full of racist and terrorist attacks, and Britain is adding to this awfulness. This is not independence we have achieved, it is a secluded and vulnerable position that has very little chance of improving. Well done Britain, in fact not Britain, England, because the rest of the 'United' Kingdom had the sense to vote remain. Happy 'independence' day, idiots.