Well, the news is probably too old now to cover as almost all prominent VoIP bloggers have covered it by now. However, there is something that I would like to leave for you to ponder upon.



The case first:



Rates Technology (a name that I don’t recall having heard before) has filed a lawsuit against Google for two patent infringements (that they were awarded in 1995 and 2001) for reducing the cost of LDC using the Internet. They say that Google’s GoogleTalk infringes the patent.



It is asking for a jury trial along with:



1. Enforcement of the patents

2. Damages including the loss of profits so provide a royalty

3. A preliminary injunction against Google

4. Attorney’s fees



Get the full complaint in PDF here.



Who should really benefit? Patent holders or real developers?



Rates Technology has a history of filing lawsuits against companies for patent infringements; so much so, that it has by now litigated 25 times in last 15 years including companies like Nortel, Cisco, Sharp Electronics etc. Not only this, it has entered into agreements over various patents with an incredible 700-800 VoIP equipment making companies!!



Going by this, it certainly looks that Rich Tehrani has hit the nail right on the head when he said Rates Technology is a company that exists to collect revenues from other companies.



Then we are already witnessing the dust that has fanned in the NTP versus RIM over the BlackBerry patent upon which Jeff Pulver predicted that the outcome of the challenge would be a boon for integrated IP Communication enabled services.



One can argue endlessly if a developer actually stole an idea of some idea squatter and went on to develop upon it or it was the drive of the developer who went ahead on his own.



Ok, ideas might be argued to be a legitimate source of income. But then, having a team of ‘professional’ thinkers with some kind of science background and working on futuristic ideas and patenting them is an outrageous thought. You cannot simply hold on to an idea and stop the progress of technology for monetary reasons or otherwise.



Imagine if Arthur C. Clark had patented a few of his ideas like the idea of using satellites for communications way before the first satellite was launched!