Amazon Kindle Fire tablet already targeted by patent troll

By on Oct 11, 2011 at 8:45 AM
Legal October 11, 2011

Welcome to the tablet game, Amazon. Just two weeks after taking the wraps off its Kindle Fire tablet, Amazon has already been hit with a lawsuit from patent licensing firm Acacia Research — a company that makes money by buying up other companies’ intellectual property and then licenses it out through a variety of subsidiaries. In other words, Acacia is a patent troll. The firm alleges that Amazon’s Kindle Fire infringes on several of its patents, including one that covers graphics on a touchscreen that respond when a user “writes” on said screen, and a second titled “System And Method For Displaying And Manipulating Multiple Calendars On A Personal Digital Assistant.” Acacia currently has multiple pending patent suits against Apple and other defendants that refused to settle with the firm.

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  • Brian Wenger

    Filthy trolls.

  • Anonymous

    Welcome to the game Amazon. TBH I couldn’t give two shits about a company worth billions getting sued by a bunch of trolls.

    Occupy Wall Street!

    • Jmaxku

      Yeah Capitalism sucks. Everything is an industry–education, my student loans at what not. America wasn’t founded on entrepreneurship. Steve Jobs wasn’t one. That’s for sure. Government owes us everything. Government gives us everything including our iPhones.

      • Anonymous

        … because I’m a child that needs a big government to tell me how to live my life. I’m not an adult and am, therefore, not able to shape my own destiny.

    • Guest

      Sent from my iPhone

    • http://twitter.com/GRZLA Grizzly Atoms

      How can you honestly support the Occupy Wall Street movement when you violently defend Apple products on this very blog? Steve Jobs and Apple are the 1%. They outsource their labor to children in foreign countries under sweat shop conditions and then throw a huge mark up on the product. You are just as much a problem as Wall Street you guppy.

      Don’t support something until you are willing to really support it.

      • Anonymous

        Let’s get something straight. You are fighting the wrong argument and don’t even know it. The problems you mentioned existed in the US well before China. I don’t want the Chinese people to exist in the same situation as the US did in the early 20th century but that is where they are. The only alternative is to pay them American wages which is the reason why all tech companies outsourced in the first place. China, while it grows, will face the same problems as the US.

        When I mentioned the wrong argument, it is in regards to paying taxes. Both Apple and Google, along with others, are attempting to lobby the Republican Congress for a tax holiday. This is tax money that the country needs yet they are selfish like the rest of business.

        Understand, I will always choose my country or humanity, before any tech company. I may love Apple products and I may be somewhat wealthy, but I’m still the poor kid who grew up in Queens who had to raise two sisters (one that works at Google as a student) while having no father and a mother who needed welfare to survive.

        I’m not some tween on BGR. I’m the badass who can speak like this at work while not getting fired.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Fuller/584626026 Mike Fuller

        You grew up in Queens? Did you know Eric Murphy, Vincent Chase, Jonny (Drama) Chase and turtle?

      • Anonymous

        @Mike Fuller I don’t know what if you’re kidding or not but I knew drug dealers and some got shot and killed. The only friend that got out, my best friend, is now a teacher of medicine at Harvard.

        I’m 33 and I think Eddie Murphy grew up in Long Island. Other than that I don’t know celebrities.

        LOL, my sister is at the University of Dublin for one year but she’s taking a job at Google in Cali for one year before she goes back to law school. I’m asking her to set me up with Christina Hendricks. Her husband isn’t cool enough for her.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_64P7ACXX4ACN44ZZET3UI2CDKA Vincent

        Let me guess…you are a union-guy… “I’m the badass who can speak like this at work while not getting fired.”

  • Anonymous

    My PAPI is an anal troll. He has a license to enter my anus anytime he wants.

    • Anonymous

      You are a filthy, disgusting, degenerate, low lifed, piece of scum.

      • Anonymous

        He’s from NYC. It’s an acquired taste (so to speak).

  • Anonymous

    This is why the whole system is bullshit. You didn’t invent it but you’ll buy it from someone and pursue legal action everywhere.

  • Michael Carrington

    This is a great practice round for Amazon as RIM will most likely be taking them to court as well.

    • Bryguy

      How so?  What are they infringing on from RIM?

      • Michael Carrington

        Are you kidding me? That thing looks EXACTLY like the Playbook! 

      • Anonymous

        You can’t sue someone because it “looks” like something else. if that was the case RIM would of sued Samsung for the first galaxy tab they put out.

      • Applesucksfatties

        @fef0f8d865472a8c62346d489d7b3482:disqus  – I agree.

        @AMaench:disqus – was the first galaxy tab made by the same manufacture that built the PlayBooks for RIM?

      • Rudy

        kinda like how the Galaxy tab’s and phones look like iPhones and iPads … not really but close…the Kindle Fire looks EXACTLY like a Playbook

    • Brian Wenger

      Apple probably will too.

      • Anonymous

        If you want to be intelligent learn how to read. The article already said:

        “Acacia currently has multiple pending patent suits against Apple and other defendants that refused to settle with the firm.”

      • Anonymous

        Apple normally doesn’t sue until a product sales over a million units. Frankly, I am tired of all the lawsuits as of late. It only stifles innovation.

  • Anonymous

    So when a company other than apple does it they are a troll.

    • Anonymous

      If you want to be intelligent learn how to read. The article already said:

      “Acacia currently has multiple pending patent suits against Apple and other defendants that refused to settle with the firm.”

      A patent troll does not develop their own products. Apple does. Google sued with patents they purchased, not developed. Can you tell me why?

      • Anonymous

        Apple is just as bad. Instead of innovating they sue. Sounds like a troll to me.

      • Victor Oliveira

        Wait until someone start to replicate stuff like SIRI and then i want see if you have the same opinion.

  • iHate Prius drivers

    There really needs to be some sort of control here. This is getting out of hand. I think there should be a clause written in the patent system that if a patent is granted to a company or person it must be used within a set amount of time or it will be taken away from the holder and it has to be put to use by the party that applied for it and cannot be licensed out prior to that. It needs to be written in a way to put an end to patent trolls and their ridiculous law suits. If a patent troll wants to sue they need to actually put to use the patent, develop the technology, have it out in the market and then sue if someone copies it and refuses to license it from them.

    • Surveillance

      Why? How are any of these law suits affecting your life?

      • Anonymous

        Consumers eventually pay for all these legal fees and any money paid to the patent trolls, through higher prices of products and services

    • Anonymous

      “…a clause written into the patent system…”
      “…if a patent is granted to a company or person…”
      “…by the party that applied for it…”
      “…then sure if someone copies it…”

      ugh, reading statements like these as they apply to the area of patents is like fingernails on a chalkboard…lots and lots of fingernails

  • Applesucksfatties

    Oooh, your smartphone/tablet has a round shaped power button…  we are suing you for patent infringement.

    Oooh, you used “App” in the name of your  application store… we are suing you for patent infringement.

    Wait, you have a touchscreen device…  we are suing you for patent infringement…

    You used the words “patent infringement”….. we are suing you for patent infringement..

    • Anonymous

      ahhh, nothing better than deft analysis by someone who is clearly an expert in patent law

      again, i must beg, urge, grovel with tech sites not to write anything related to patents because doing so only stirs up emotions by people who have absolutely zero understanding of the law

      • iHate Prius drivers

        Its never wise to assume things about people. I guess going to Rutgers and passing the NJ bar exam means I know nothing of the law. Nice try blasting my post and this persons post buddy. Now leave the big legal matters to me. I know what I’m talking about. If you want to talk about law I charge what the full retail on a Droid Bionic is per hour.

      • Anonymous

        an atty, perhaps, but clearly not a registered patent attorney with several years under your belt, at least based on your comment; my eyes started burning at “…a clause written into the patent system…”

  • Ulysses Grant

    Amazon, just buy WebOS….f**k all trollers

  • Justin Lisenby

    Patent wars in this country are getting ridiculous. Why can’t we all just get along? Accept that even if you did it first that someone else may do it better.

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