Xerox Corp is suing Google and Yahoo over patent-infringement claims related to search queries and data integration.
The suit, filed Feb. 19 in in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, says that some of Google's biggest services such as Google Maps, YouTube and its AdSense advertising software infringes on Xerox's patents held by Xerox since 2001. It cites Yahoo Shopping as a service from that search giant that infringes.
The Xerox patents were for inventions that generating queries for information related to a document, and for keyword and contextual searches and ways of integrating information from documents and other data, Xerox said in its court filing.
The document company says that it has been trying to settle its grievance directly with the two search giants, to no avail. Xerox seeks compensation for infringement and asked the court to halt the companies from further using the technology.
Legal representatives from Google say that the suit is completely "without merit," reports BusinessWeek and both companies vow to fight the suit.
I say that method patents, which allow you to patent a process, or series of steps or acts, don't belong in the computer industry and are the real culprit. The patent system needs an overhaul. If patents could be restricted to more specific pieces of technology, then maybe companies need to spend less time suing one another over and more time solving the world's technology problems.
So tell me, am I dreaming?
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