As you know, this is a litigious society. There are companies set up all around the world to purchase companies who have portfolios of trademarks and patents. See, the company isn’t going to use these trademarks and patents for anything real, be it a product or service. No, it’s going to use these to sue people and try and win money.

Take this company for example, Innovatio IP. According to a report by TechDirt, it has been suing companies for patent infringement on what seems to cover any implementation of WiFi (Wireless Internet).

So far, the company has sued companies such as Caribou Coffee, Cosi, Panera Bread Co, Marriott, Best Western, and Comfort Inns hotels. Just for offering WiFi in its establishments. Innovatio IP’s lawyers will let them settle for anywhere between $2,300 and $5,000. That sure is nice of them.

The real interesting part of the story was this quote by one of its lawyers Matthew McAndrews:

Innovatio has made a strategic and business judgment at this stage that it doesn’t intend to pursue [lawsuits on the basis of] residential use of WiFi,” McAndrews said during a phone conversation last week.

The company is basically saying that it’s just choosing not to sue people who have personal WiFi in their homes just yet. Could that be coming? From the looks of things, we can’t put it past them.

McAndrews continued:

We want you to continue to use this technology, we just want our client to get his due share. This is not a seat-of-the-pants, fly-by-night shakedown.

That sure is nice of Innovatio IP. What do you think of companies who use patent and trademarks to troll for money? Are you afraid that your personal WiFi capabilities may be taken away, or worse yet, you will be sued for having it? Speak up in the comments.

This is significant for a country that is already one of the most well-wired countries in the world.

On December 23, 2009 the Korean Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) announced that there will be wireless hotspots in all 23 Korea Train eXpress (KTX) train stations. For those who don’t know the KTX is South Korea’s speed train, which can get travelers from Seoul to Busan in around three hours.

This deal is the result of  a deal between Korea Telecom (KT) and Korail.  This deal will encourage business travelers to take advantage of the fast KTX connections between South Korean towns and cities.  It will also be a welcome relief for travelers who don’t want to journey out of the Korail stations to local Internet cafes.

This will also be a great boost to KT, which is South Korea’s second largest mobile telephone company.  The free wifi hotspots will support KT’s “Qook & Show” service. This will allow mobile subscribers with wifi-enabled phones to switch from mobile networks to fixed-line networks. This happens through what is called a fixed mobile convergence service (FMC).

This clearly benefits users, as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services charge significantly less for voice minutes than conventional wireless services.

KT will also establish outlets at the five major train stations of Seoul, Yongsan, Daejeon, East Daegu and Busan for customers to test and purchase the latest electronic gadgets that work on KT’s fixed-line, mobile and Internet networks.

This is a great deal all around for KT which already has an incredible level of service.  This is also probably a really smart move for KT as they already have the most wifi hotspots in South Korea.

KT’s 13,000 Wi-Fi “hot zones” around the country currently account for most of the Wi-Fi APs (access points) in the nation. The company plans to expand its Wi-Fi zones to 50,000 or 60,000 by the end of next year, marking its first major expansion since 2005.

The only downside? They didn’t announce a date for when these free hotspots would be up and running. However, if installation is done at the usual speed that they do these things in South Korea, it should be up and running sooner rather than later. This will make the train stations as convenient as South Korea’s Incheon airport in terms of Internet connectability.

Source: The Korea Times – Train Stations to Have Wireless Internet Zones