patent infringement

Well, well. While their names may be fading into history, Morpheus and Kazaa were the two big file sharing apps after Napster was shut down.

They were both built on the same basic platform (which came from Kazaa), and at some point the two actually got into a fight, leading Kazaa to shut off Morpheus, and years later there were still some lawsuits going on.

The intellectual property battle rages on between Apple and Samsung. In April 2011, Apple filed for patent infringement, claiming that Samsung copied its iPhone and iPad designs.

Courts all over the world have taken on this battle. Europe and Australia, for instance, have ordered preliminary injunctions barring Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from shelves -- just in time for the holiday season.

The intellectual property battle rages on between Apple and Samsung.

In April 2011, Apple filed for patent infringement, claiming that Samsung copied its iPhone and iPad designs.

Courts all over the world have taken on this battle.

In June, Tranz-Send Broadcasting Network filed a complaint where it alleged that BitTorrent Inc. was infringing on a patent originally filed in April 1999.

The San Francisco based company claimed to have suffered significant losses and demanded compensation for the ongoing patent infringement.

One of the absolute worst parts of the patent system is that, unlike many other legal issues, it's nearly impossible to easily get a patent claim dismissed.

Thanks to rather arcane rules in how fights over patents work out, it almost always has to go trial if the parties don't settle.

The patent lawyers love this, of course. It makes them plenty of money. But you would hope that in extremely ridiculous cases, courts would be quick to dump such lawsuits.

Matt writes in and summarizes the details of a ridiculous ruling perfectly below, so I'll let him takeover and chime in again at the end:

"On Friday, a Texas federal judge in the U.S.

District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an astonishing order. In essence, it fined InnoLux because its CEO stated his belief, in China, that the US sometimes over-enforces patents.

We've had numerous stories of Monsanto's rather aggressive patent enforcement efforts, and unfortunately it appears the company has chalked up another victory in the courts.