14 DAY TRIAL // It wasn't unexpected, it really wasn't, but the fact that Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet got sued even before it made it out the door is still an unfortunate reminder of the patent system's shortcomings, new law or not.
Granted, it isn't exactly accurate to say that the new Amazon tablet got sued, more like Amazon got called to court for making it.
Of course, super-cheap as it is, the slate did get 95,000 orders on the first day of pre-orders, so it definitely qualifies as troll bait.
The fact that Amazon expects to sell millions of these things definitely doesn't help reduce its allure either.
More to the point, Amazon is the target of a lawsuit on the part of Smartphone Technologies LLC, whose claim is that Amazon infringes a patent that describes operating a touchscreen device by tapping on icons.
Yes, apparently, there is a patent, or more of them, that describes the act of tapping on an icon on a touchscreen (the new patent law hasn't done anything to unravel the mystery of the patent system yet).
Smartphone Technologies LLC is owned by publicly traded company Acacia Research, which collects and licenses patents.
This parent troll, as the web likes to call them, is also involved in the suit, as Amazon's Kindle Fire infringes some of its own technologies, just like it infringes the patent for using multiple calendars on a device.
The fact that the media is actually used to seeing this sort of thing crop up, after all the Apple-Samsung battles (and not only) over this or that, is just another element to add to the sad state of affairs.
The sad part is that all this is possible simply because of how poorly the patent system was thought out, and how the latest law won't really put a stop to patent trolls either, even if it does, supposedly, make it harder for this sort of actions to turn up.
If the plaintiffs win, they'll be in for a nice pay day, since a settlement would involve license payment per unit, leading to large figures as Kindle Fire sell by the truckload.
Now all we can do is wonder if there really will be futuristic window/mirror/touchscreen displays in ten years or if patent fights will try to sink that ship too before it leaves port.