back to article SimpleAir wins patent suit against Google

Google could be hit with a bill less than one twenty-fifth of what it paid for Nest, after losing a patent lawsuit with minnow SimpleAir. SimpleAir claimed that Android infringed a patent covering push notification over wireless networks, and after a week-long trial in a Texas federal court, a jury has agreed. Separate …

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  1. Roo
    Windows

    Gulliver in Lilliput

    Google pinned down as they snooze by red tape and lawyers...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    wah wah

    But but but Apple do this all the time…. wah wah wah

    Android is free

    Google do no evil

    wah wah wah

    That about covers it

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: wah wah

      Are you upset because only Apple is allowed to patent troll?

  3. RedneckMother
    Flame

    Oh, dear $deity - once again, I'm embarrassed to be a Texican.

    "Dear Gubmmit,

    Please quit sitting around with one thumb in your mouth, the other in your bunghole, and waiting for someone to holler: 'SWITCH!'

    Sincerely,

    A (semi)Rational Person"

  4. Slawek

    All of that is very mundane and rather obvious - it should never be allowed to be patented.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hmmm at 1st I'd say WTF, but it was applied for in 1999, about the same time "Wi-Fi" was founded. So yes it well may of been fairly unique back then, but it's so vague, it should of been struck down on that.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Yes, some years before that patent was applied for I did something very similar but without the wireless bit. A simple listener/notification pop-up running in himem as a TSR and a central "server" (A PC with an 8-port RS232 add-in card for a network of sorts) which sent a code to the client (pushed) to say "hey, there's a message for you". The user then closed whatever they were doing and ran my mail program to have a look at the new mail message. (yes, single tasking/single user DOS days)

        I'm sure many people had already "invented" something similar to my "invention". Of course, none of that is "prior art" since it's not "on a wireless device" or even "on a mobile device".

        1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

          I'm sure many people had already "invented" something similar to my "invention".

          Indeed. The UNIX write(1) command (1970s), or biff/comsat (1980) if you're picky. Project Athena's Zephyr (1986), Microsoft's SMB messenger (sometime in the '80s), and so on.

          Friggin' pagers. Remember those? Oh, and they were "wireless devices" too.

          Of course, none of that is "prior art" since it's not "on a wireless device" or even "on a mobile device".

          The court ought to have found that irrelevant. Packet-switched radio networks go back at least as far as ALOHAnet (1971).

          I haven't read the patent, but I can't imagine what actual innovation it might describe. My guess is nothing.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Has Simple Air ever actually made anything?

    See title.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Has Simple Air ever actually made anything?

      Going by the one page website, no. Troll is the word you are looking for.

  6. Wang N Staines

    This is Texas, this win be overturned by the next non-Texan court.

  7. Tim Bates

    SMS in classic GSM digital mobiles?

    When did GSM and SMS start? Isn't an SMS basically what they described?

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: SMS in classic GSM digital mobiles?

      When did GSM and SMS start?

      I can answer that! I have access to a world-wide "web" of useful informations.

      SMS was developed in the early '80s and deployed in 1992.

      HTH. HAND.

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