On Tuesday, a federal jury in Texas found that Sony, HTC, and Alcatel-Lucent did not infringe on Wi-Lan’s technology. Wi-Lan is a pretty well known patent troll that is using litigation to generate revenue, and had accused these companies of infringing on four of their wireless patents. The company had previously filed a similar lawsuit with Blackberry back in December.
A spokesperson for Wi-Lan spoke with The Wall Street Journal, that the company was “disappointed with the jury’s decision,” and it is now reviewing their options. Wi-Lan’s shares fell more than 30% to a new 3-year low of $3.27 on Monday. Then rebounded back on Tuesday, jumping 13% to $3.70 per share.
It’s great to see these patent trolls losing, especially to struggling companies like HTC, and Sony here in the US. There’s really no need to go after companies for patents, especially when you can’t make revenue any other way. Isn’t that pretty desperate? It appears like that to me. Maybe I just support HTC, and Sony too much? Who knows. But I do know that I’m very tired of all these patent lawsuits, and I also know they are not stopping anytime soon.
Wi-Lan is a company that develops and commercializes technology that made low-cost, high-speed wireless networking a reality. So looking at that, it would appear that if HTC, Sony and Alcatel did infringe on any of their patents, they should be Standards Essentials patents right? You can find out more about Wi-Lan’s patent portfolio here.
So is this another win for Android? Yes and no. While all three are Android manufacturers, and they did win the case, the case should have never happened to begin with. What do you think about this case? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Do you think Wi-Lan is a legitimate patent troll?