Bozo Patent suit of the day
More evidence that the USPTO should get out of software - this Burst.com suit against Apple's iTunes:
After being approached by Burst.com in late 2004, Apple had filed for a declaratory judgment in January that it isn't infringing on Burst's patents, but Burst is going ahead with its lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in San Francisco. Burst is asking for royalties as well as an injunction, it said in a press release.
Yeah, because those bits that happen to be music download so very, very differently than the bits that happen to be an HTML document.
Update: Is this what you call "Innovation by lawyering?"
Burst.com is represented in the action against Apple by San Francisco law firm Hosie McArthur, who also represented Burst in its successful litigation against Microsoft Corporation. In March 2005, Microsoft settled that litigation by paying Burst $60 million for a non-exclusive license to Burst’s patents. Burst has also expanded its legal team in the Apple litigation to include attorneys from the Seattle office of Susman Godfrey, LLP, as well as Houston-based intellectual property firm Heim, Payne & Chorush, LLP. Also representing Burst is Palo Alto-based intellectual property firm Carr & Ferrell, LLP.
When you see "expansion of the legal team" in the headline, you can be pretty sure that there's a lot of horse hockey being tossed around...
