14 DAY TRIAL // A hot new trend has arisen in the IT industry, read carefully! You wouldn't want to be left out... It's called the Suing Trend, and its basic concept is this: when one has money and you think you might be able to convince 5 randomly picked people that some of that money belongs to you, for any reason in the world, SUE! Many great things can be accomplished if one sticks to this very simple concept.
I'll continue by giving you a premise in this story: Apple has a lot of money! (a little less now, after having paid Cisco for their brand, but anyway).
I heard today Microsoft might be forced to pay Alcatel-Lucent the ridiculously huge amount of 1.52 billion US dollars after they successfully claimed Redmond has been using mp3 technology that also belongs to them, not just to Fraunhofer (who licensed that exact mp3 technology to Microsoft for $16 million).
I have no doubt in my mind that Microsoft will never pay this money to Alcatel-Lucent. If they do, nearly all IT providers will have to do the same, and Apple could possibly contribute most.
And now further news has drawn my attention. Texas MP3 Technologies has filed a patent suit against Apple, Samsung and Sandisk, regarding 'an MPEG portable sound reproducing system'. The patent was granted to SigmaTel who later sold it.
Apple has used SigmaTel multimedia decoding processors in their 1st generation iPod Shuffle and Samsung processors for their 2nd generation devices. Sources say SigmaTel is hoping for larger contracts with Apple.
"Because these are such basic patents to digital music, we believe it will be difficult to design around these patents and have a commercially viable player," said SigmaTel when it sold the patent.
The lawsuit was filed in Marshall, Texas. It seems that, statistically, they have a better chance of winning here.
Well, I just can't wait to see who else thinks they've invented the mp3! (It will come as no surprise if that's tomorrow). For more on the Suing Trend, stay posted.