Patent suits have been around since patents have been filed. Some are bluffs, some are very real, and all have tremendous consequences. Often its Goliath going after David to kill upstart competition or simply to muscle flex. The trend lately as Jason points out in the blog is a battle of the giants. But every once in a while it's the other way around. The lesson for smart entrepreneurs in the mobile and online space would be to look at a landmark case against Microsoft that very few in the U.S. heard about, Sendo v. Microsoft.

It dates back to 2003 when the UK-based mobile phone manufacturer's founder and CEO (and a colleague of mine at Philips), Hugh Brogan, moved to leverage the potential of mobile multimedia and the Internet. Sendo found a partner in Microsoft who with Windows and a fair-sized investment planned to bring a smart phone to market.

www.businessweek.com/death-of-a-dream-at-sendo, www.theregister.co.uk/microsoftsmasterplan

Anyway you look at it, all patent actions take energy away from a company's business and product focus. As was the case with Sendo who ultimately won the lawsuit, in the end there are no real winners.

Good point Mitch, so the "rule of thumb" is that no matter how small or standard one should not hesitate to patent the idea, design, or invention.

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mharden - Sometimes an idea seems obvious -- like it shouldn't be patentable -- but then you have to ask why, if it's so obvious, it was never done before. That's where prior art research comes in. 

@ mtechie

According to my knowledge that for a time period companies have exclusive rights to those medicines that they have developed after that they have to issue licenses for them. It is vital in medicine industry as one company is expending lot of resources in development of drugs and others just cant copy and start selling if it happens  companies with resources to research will stop doing it. Thats why I think the patents in medicine industry are important.

@Metchi -- Appreciate your sympathy when you say, "sorry to read your specialized treatment isn't available," but I'm not dead yet, nor in need of this treatment yet.  I just think that personalized medicine, where copanies like Dendreon make personalized therapies based on an individual's own body chemistry, is a great idea.  If companies who make this personalized therapy cannot patent their invention, it makes it much more difficult for them to get their research funded. 

@Mtechie -- a big problem with medical patents is that   the Supreme Court recently made it less likely that personalized medical treatments can be patented (Prometheus v Mayo).  I was very excited by the possibilitiy of a treatment specially designed for my body chemistry (an possibly genome), but no company will work on developing these treatments if they cannot patent them and profit from their research.