New Patent Troll Makes Vast Claim to Web Video, Sues 14 Big Media Companies
Bartonfalls LLC, an entity formed in August in the patent hotspot of East Texas, has sued 14 big media companies, claiming the media giants like CBS, NBC Universal and Bloomberg violated patented technology designed to switch automatically from one video display another, reports Ars Technica.
Reporter Joe Mullin explains that the patent, filed in 1997, “doesn’t talk about Web video or the Internet at all. Rather, it talks about switching between different video inputs when changing television programs.”
“Corporate documents show that Bartonfalls was formed as a Texas LLC in August,” according to the article. “Its business office is a virtual office in Plano, a city that’s just inside the borders for the Eastern District of Texas, the venue that it filed its lawsuits in. The only listed manager of Bartonfalls is a paralegal at a small Texas law firm, Stoddard and Welsh.”
