If you have read this blog at all you know I have a very dim view of software patents. The system is so horribly broken, and most Americans, unfamiliar with the details of the technology, have no idea just how dangerously out of hand the situation has become.

Now it comes out that a “patent troll” (a company that exists only to acquire patents and then sue people over them…contributing nothing to society and leeching off of those who are truly trying to innovate) has started suing businesses that provide wireless access to their customers (like hotel chains and shops like Panera Bread) claiming that they (the patent troll company) own the patent on wireless networking.

By extension, if you have a wireless router in your house, you could be sued (though it is unlikely).

If you’d like to read more about this utter stupidity, check out this link: http://patentexaminer.org/2011/09/innovatios-infringement-suit-rampage-expands-to-corporate-hotels/

Sad to say, the so-called “America Invents Act,” that lovely bit of legislation passed in the last month that promised to fix the patent system, will do NOTHING for this situation.

Give the above article a read…then give your congressman an earful.

More cheerful posts to come soon…