A while back a man named Sheldon Goldberg made a name for himself by registering a patent for computer solitaire. He was ridiculed at the time, even as far as having the EFF list his patent filing as one of the worst of the year in 2004. Goldberg has finally laid all of his cards on the table by filing patent infringement suits against some of the biggest online names.

Who has Goldberg listed in his lawsuit? Everyone, it seems, including heavy hitters like Google, Digg, Yahoo, AOL, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNET, and more. How is Goldbaum able to get the lawsuit filed, instead of being punished for being frivolous? Because of how he registered the patent.

Instead of patenting the actual game Solitaire online, he patented the delivery system behind the game in two separate patents. One patent was for a network gaming system, and one patent was for a method that allowed games to be played on a network.

The patents themselves could be considered frivolous, but the fact that they were accepted under our current patent system means that they can support an equally frivolous lawsuit or two. How a judge decides to handle these lawsuits could be a much needed blow to the patent system, especially now that Digg has picked up various stories on this around the Internet. Once the legion of Diggites get involved, the stuff usually hits the fan.

Goldberg would do well to take a minute and get his ducks in a row. He’s is about to have the laser beam of the Internet focused on his every move, not to mention the legal team behind behemoths like Google, AOL, Yahoo and the New York Times. You get the Junior Mints and soda, I’ll grab the popcorn and we can watch the show together.

Related:

Entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 4:18 pm under Google, Technology.

Read more entries by Leslie Poston.
Stumble It!