Encyclopaedia Britannica sues TomTom, Magellan for alleged patent infringement

TomTom has already tussled with Garmin over alleged patent infringement, but it looks like the company has now drawn some ire from a slightly more unexpected source, with Encyclopaedia Britannica now suing it, along with Magellan and, somewhat curiously, American TV & Appliance (a retailer based in Wisconsin). So far, about the only thing that's known about the lawsuit -- which was filed May 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin -- is that Encyclopaedia Britannica is claiming that the companies infringed on some of its patents for a "computerized map system." Exactly how that applies to these three particular companies and not everyone else, we're not sure, though we're sure we'll be hearing more about it soon enough.

[Anthony @ May 31st 2007 3:54PM]

Maybe that's how they'll stay in business. I always wondered what would become of companies whose product line is traditionally print, but hasn't really kept up with an online world.

[paul34 @ May 31st 2007 4:20PM]

You're exactly right. While normally I don't like the whole jumping to conclusions thing, I'm pretty sure that's exactly what is going on here.

Isn't this the same company that "released" that story about how they're actually more accurate than Wikipedia? Aren't they the ones that where whining about "boo hoo, don't use wikipedia! waaa, pay to use ours instead!"

Give me a break. Publishers and all those like will die eventually. And quite frankly (given what they do to the students of this country - restricting the flow of learning and information solely for monetary gain), I hope they do go under. I have no pity for them.

[ITR @ May 31st 2007 3:56PM]

Sue season must be on this month.

[John B @ May 31st 2007 4:06PM]

These intellectual property lawsuits are just out of fu*king control. The U.S. government continues to be blinded by their euphoria or depression from November's elections and therefore are doing nothing about lawsuit and patent reform. This has got to stop.

[andy @ May 31st 2007 4:20PM]

@ John B


re patent reform:

YEAH, DOWN WITH THE LITTLE GUY. SCREW THOSE SMALLER COMPANIES. MS, APPLE, EBAY, and YAHOO FTW.

SUXORS.


Stay in school kids. Elminating meaningful damages is the basis of the "reform", and in conjunction with the elimination of injunctions (Ebay v. Merc Exchange), it is the end of any meaningful patent system. For those of you too dense to understand what that means, it means that the only thing that matters is the size of your warchest (ability to prolong litigation) and the speed with which you can identify and incorporate IP owned by companies with smaller warchests (will die before being able to overtake your market share). It means you need to raise at least the market cap of MS (100 some odd billion?) before you even THINK about working in software.


but yeah, PATENT REFORM! SAVE US!

[Dan @ May 31st 2007 4:12PM]

American is a decent electronics/furniture retail chain that competes head to head with Best Buy in Iowa, and other places in the Midwest. Why they would be doing something that would cause an Encyclopedia publishing company to raise their eyebrow is interesting to say the least. They don't exactly have the money to fight legal battles like the big boys do.

[andy @ May 31st 2007 4:23PM]

It does seem a rather odd cast of characters doesn't it?

I mean, where's Garmin unless they licensed? Why American? Where are all the internet retailers? Where are the distributors? It's either incomplete, or overinclusive, but which?

[John B @ May 31st 2007 4:25PM]

Andy, what are you smoking and why aren't you sharing with the rest of us? That seems to be some really good stuff.

[arnold @ May 31st 2007 4:34PM]

andy....it must feel good to dispense your endless knowledge....
you're an idiot.....and the worst kind...the kind that thinks he knows something.

[tekdroid @ May 31st 2007 4:30PM]

...restricting the flow of learning and information solely for monetary gain), I hope they do go under.
--------
you're right, teachers should work for free, and textbooks should be free, too.

[paul34 @ May 31st 2007 6:51PM]

Huh? What do teachers have to do with the publishing companies?

Also, I never said anything about textbooks being free... or teachers working for no pay.

But if it makes you feel better to create false interpretations, go ahead =).

[hydrogen_wv @ May 31st 2007 4:34PM]

EB gets their money, i guarantee it... They have an online encyclopedia and while there may not be many individuals buying subscriptions Universities are throwing money at them. I'm not sure how much it costs for a university to get a susbscription for its students, but i'm sure its no small figure. I'd almost guarantee that the majority of Universities and Colleges have subscriptions with them.

It may even be safe to say that they are making more now than they were when they sold just print. Libraries will still buy hard copies but will also pay thousands a year (tens of thousands.. hundreds of thousands...?) for an online subscription.


Either way though... dumb lawsuit... Even if all those places use their intellectual property, it's not like TomTom and Magellan are selling encyclopedias... or doing anything else that will take business from EB.

[andy @ May 31st 2007 4:43PM]

@ John B and Arnold


Please explain what's wrong with my analysis.

It's easy to say, "pfft, you don't know anything." The hard part comes when you have to back that up by proving something I said is untrue, or that you have a better analysis.


I'm guessing that since both of you stopped at, "you're stupid," That you have absolutely no idea what the proposed Patent Reform Act 2007 says, do you? You probably don't know the holding of Ebay v. Merc Exchange either do you?

Do you even know what a patent is, because it's rather obvious that you don't know anything about the patent system or the proposed reforms.

I'm also guessing that you guys are some of the open source proponents that would go nuts if you even saw a list of companies supporting "patent reform". And here you are supporting it? Oh, right. This was a "crazy lawsuit" post, so we're all supossed to jump on that bandwagon. If it were a "MS steals little guy IP again" post, we'd be saying that the entire company should belong to the little guy, right?

[jonbarnett @ May 31st 2007 5:44PM]

No, andy, it's just really easy to spot someone who has such poor communication skills he shouldn't be allowed near a keyboard.

[hydrogen_wv @ May 31st 2007 4:53PM]

paul34 - I don't know if you are taling about college students or k-12, but neither have to pay to access EB... College students generally have access via their school library (a subscription or a hard copy). K-12 students can go to a library and look at a hard copy.

If EB didn't have any monetary gain, there would be no EB. Easy as that. And, really, find me one piece of info in EB that I can't find somewhere else on the web? The only issue is that when you get to college level you generally have to use scholarly sources. Once again, this goes back to most colleges/universities having a subscription.

I think that wanting money for their time spent is not unreasonable at all... Most people that work for nonprofit organizations get paid, too. Only people that don't get paid to work are teenagers doing chores, volunteers, and some interns.

tekdroid - If you ask me, teachers do work for free.. Considering the stuff they have to put up with and what a crucial role they have, they don't get paid nearly enough. I, personally, think that teachers should get paid closer to what Doctors do... if it wasn't for teachers, we wouldn't have doctors.

[paul34 @ May 31st 2007 6:57PM]

I probably should have explained my original post better. I know most people automatically assume I'm talking about textbook pricing and nothing else. Well, I suppose that's one aspect... but I have a different idea for that - unrelated to my original complaint.

Here's my beef: the restriction of self-help tools to students. By this I mean items such as solutions manuals. I've even contacted the publishing companies directly, making well known my full intent to pay for a legit text copy. And yet they turn me down, citing "marketwide policy."

It is not very different than having a friend help you. Indeed, there is a concern of kids "cheating"... but in college, cheating will get you an F on that exam. For the most part, your success depends on *you*.

I find solutions manuals to be such an incredibly helpful tool in truly understanding the material and homework. In fact, without it, I probably would have understood very little of many classes I have taken (and am still taking).

True, you could try tutoring... but not all students have those resources. Is it right to restrict their "right" to understand and learn simply because they don't have enough money? I know some would say "yes," but I do not believe so.

And yes, it is true many schools now offer free tutoring-type services. Without a doubt, these facilities are extremely useful (and oftentimes necessary, as many solutions manuals, while useful, are not always the best written things), they simply lack the resources necessary to serve a very large population.

That's all I'm saying. I see it as the restriction of information for no reason. That - to me - is very wrong. Who gave them the right to not allow students to better understand the material?

[Kamokazi @ May 31st 2007 5:02PM]

It's almost like the CEO walked into one of those stores, saw something he thought they had a patent on, and told his lawyers to sue those guys.

[Philip S @ May 31st 2007 5:14PM]

These lawsuits are getting crazy. Who hasn't been sued in the last year?

[exvaxman @ May 31st 2007 6:35PM]

American TV & Appliance is a really sleazy place IMHO. Advertise the lowest prices except for other local stores that have it for less. They used to record customer conversations without permission to review why they lost a sale at the end of the day. I once had a salesman tell me that the price I had for a washing machine was not real - I simply called the other store in front of him and verified that the price book he had was wrong for comparison prices. So I hope they go down hard.

[Samuel Curtis @ May 31st 2007 10:18PM]

I'm quite sure they sued American just for forum shopping.

[joe rogan @ Jun 1st 2007 12:27AM]

who is the idiot who wrote the article title? you spelled MAGELLAN Wrong and you have it properly spelled in the company logo. Good job people.

[Stubbs @ Jun 1st 2007 9:11AM]

Rule Britania!