ATT claims patent on secure 3rd party internet transactions, sues Pay Pal
 

AT&T Sues EBay in Patent Dispute

AT&T said its patent covers transactions in which an intermediary securely processes payments over a communications system such as the Internet.

The long-distance company asked the court for a permanent injunction preventing eBay and PayPal from using the technology. It also asked for the profits and revenues the companies gained from its use, and an award of compensatory damages.

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0...w=wn_tophead_5

Another fucked up broad patent.

:(

Yeah just read that, what's next?

This is getting ridiculous!

the internet is getting silly...


BTW fuck acacia!

The future of big business. Stay alive via the legal system. The wild west sue or be sued.

This is really getting out of hand with the patent crap - wtf?

If Ebay/Paypal loses, Ibill/Intercept would probably be a target as well since they are publicly traded....

Why would being publicly traded have anything to do with being a target?

Your financial statements are public - less teeth pulling to get the true numbers.

If they went after CCbill they would probably have to do a bunch of legal dances in order to find out how much they make.

Who is going to fight against all this patent abuse?

ACLU? - nope, they deal with constitutional issues

EFF.org? - nope, too busy with other stuff, etc..

IMPA? - maybe, if people become members

Fight the Patent Foundation - just a concept and most likely will never be more than an idea.

FTC? - in time...don't forget they are a government office.


Fight the Nobody!

damn, this patent shit doesn't end. :(

Complete BS

It doesn't matter how much a company makes, if a company is serious about defending their patent I'm sure they wouldn't limit themselves to just public companies.

At this rate the net will be dead inside of 5 years. If this is allowed to continue this way. They need to find some middleground or another.

What the fuck!! Let's fuck up the economy some more. Greedy bastards never learn their lesson, thousands of years go by and still..

Crap, I think patents should never been issued to "Business Methods" and just stuck with actual inventions!!

V

Unfuckingbelievable!

THIS IS YOUR SIGN!!

empty your paypal account
If they get that injunction, I'm betting that paypal will hold ALL funds

you wouldn't expect someone as big as AT&T to sink to such levels to make money. makes me fear the future. got a bad quarter? sue someone!

your fucked up man, thats not even cool. i would kick your fucking ass over that site.

i have family that is handicapped.

As of tomorrow I will no longer use AT&T for our long distance company and I'll send them a letter telling them why. I doubt if they will give a rat's ass but I'll do it anyway.

This is what happens when technology advances faster than the law.

Here is the patent number 5,329,589
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/5,329,589

This is great news for people who hold network-related business process/technology patents...

not saying I know anyone like that .:Graucho oh MAN what a precedent this will set if it goes through successfully.

AT&T has been awarded (as of Nov. 4th) a patent on a common technique used by spammers to evade spam filters.

http://news.earthweb.com/IAR/article.php/3111281


So conspiracy theorists can ponder.. will AT&T use this patent to sue spammers for patent infringement?


Recently approved patent:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...S=PN/6,643,686



Fight the Spamming!

You would think that AT&T would actually do that. Suing eBay and PayPal is just going to alienate the customers of those businesses and cause AT&T to be very much disliked. AT&T will just lose money and customers going after eBay/PayPal

ya, but if PayPal accepts the patent license and passes the costs onto the consumer.. AT&T will make lots of money to offset the decreasing margins on lost long distance calls.....

the end result, consumers carry the burden by having higher transaction costs.

so prior art would need to be credit card transactions done in BBS days.. probably not that hard to find...tho, i have not dissected the patent nor the patent claims nor will I...busy enough just with audio/video patents

:)


Fight the Transaction Fees!

there should be a time limit on how long you can wait until you sue someone. i think in this case AT&T should be timed out.

All of these companies are pointing fingers and calling names. Just watch what is going to happen to AT&T they just got a patent for an anti- antispam program.. Now why do you think they would need that????



:321GFY

to all of them!

If anyone is interested - it seems this may be a worldwide patent. I checked as I was considering the consequences if they went after card processors. Here's the European patent number: EP0501697. You can look it up here:

http://www.espacenet.com/access.htm

If this patent is not overturned and AT&T start pursuing it aggressively with card processors and their license fees are extortionate the situation could turn very nasty quite quickly - particularly if you rely on your liveliehood from your Internet business!

A lot of if's in the above but I think if you have a family to support and this is your only income you should consider that now is perhaps the time to diversify?