Gulliver in Lilliput
Google pinned down as they snooze by red tape and lawyers...
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 …
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".
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.