We have to give former Sun CEO Jonathan
Schwartz credit—he’s
nothing if not interesting. After all, how many Fortune 500 presidents
resign via Twitter
haiku?
Schwartz now occupies his time blogging
and commenting on
the latest tech trends. His most recent post on the increasingly
litigious
nature of Apple caught our attention.
Buried towards the bottom, he
notes the danger of NPEs and the threat they
posed to Sun during his tenure. He goes on to link to a pending patent,
which
he defines as “an application to patent the act of trolling.”
The actual
patent needs to be seen to be believed. Essentially, if Troll A owns
this patent, and Troll B sues Legitimate Company C for infringement,
Troll A
could turn around and sue Troll B for violating its trolling patent. As
Schwartz puts it, “it would give the patent holder a reciprocal claim
against a
patent troll.
If that’s not strange enough, get
this—the patent
applicant is service provider and government contractor Halliburton.
Yes, that Halliburton.
Take a look at the patent application –
it’s good entertainment
value.
