EFF Counts Nintendo as Enemy

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recently announced its top-10 most wanted list in its Patent Busting Project, an attempt to eliminate patents that might inhibit freedom of expression, particularly in online avenues. To launch its campaign, the EFF has created a top 10 list of most wanted offenders. On the EFF’s most wanted list for frivolous patents are Nintendo, for “software implementation of a handheld videogame hardware platform,” and Sheldon F. Goldberg for threatening small online gaming through a patent for his system and methodology of playing games on a network. The group claims its objective is to “rid the world of frivolous patent infringement lawsuits” by working to eliminate the “ten whose crimes have made them enemies of the public domain,” according to the organization’s web site. The EFF’s information outlines the group’s efforts as follows: “identifying the worst offending patents; documenting the prior art that shows their invalidity; and chronicling the negative impact they have had on online publishers and innovators.”