NEW YORK (Reuters) – Internet video rental company Netflix Corp.’s legal claims against rival Blockbuster Inc. are based on “unenforceable patents,” Blockbuster said in a counterclaim filed on Tuesday.
In a bid to shut down its online service, Netflix had sued Blockbuster, the leading movie and game rental company. But Dallas-based Blockbuster on Tuesday said the lawsuit is based on patents that Netflix obtained deceptively, in a bid to monopolize online rentals.
In an April lawsuit, Netflix accused Blockbuster of starting its online service in 2004 despite knowing that the service infringed a Netflix patent.
“There is nothing original about renting movies or subscription rental programs,” Blockbuster lawyer Marshall Grossman said, noting both were widely practiced long before any such invention by Netflix.
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Patents should be done away with. All they do is murk up things. I don’t side with Blockbuster I had bad experiences with them in the past and I actually use Netflix. On one hand who is Blockbuster to say the idea isn’t orginal. On the other hand I see where they are coming from — sending movies through the mail not orginal. If you don’t want to release you’re ideas to the public no one is forcing you; keep them to yourself. But if you do decide to release them and they are picked up by someone else they should be allowed to take it wherever they want. In my mind that actually allows for the creation of new ideas. Patents more often than not are used to restrict ideas rather than what I told in school “to allow new ideas to be released”
Netflix cant compete blockbuster can lower the prices even further to compete as well as give out free instore coupons like being done.. Once in the store you may rent another movie or buy something in there. So they hope to gain more customers as well as blockbuster may signed a bigger deal with post office to ship dvds at a lot lower cost.
so what do evil corporations do when they don’t hold all the cards? THEY CRY FOUL!!
If evil Cockblockballbusters held the patents they would be doing a little dance all over everyone.
I HATE that company!
netflix is awsome and they have good customer service. i hear nothing but bad stuff about the blockbuster version