A London company, Geomas, has a patent for locating businesses based on a city or ZIP code, and is suing Verizon's SuperPages. According to Wired News, the company's business model hinges upon either forcing companies to pay licensing fees, or suing them. (In other words, they aren't actually intending to build better technology, just to extort money from those who do). Techdirt is not amused, writing, "The company has apparently raised $20 million from some of the growing list of investment firms drooling over the innovation-killing patent-hoarding lawsuit rewards."

Meanwhile, BoingBoing reports on a Carfax patent for making a database of cars with clean titles and letting users search that database (more from EFF). Cory at BoingBoing writes,

Why does stupid stuff like this matter? It matters because every click and every idea is becoming someone's property. . . . and once those patents end up in the hands of patent trolls, it's open season on the firms and people who make great stuff. We all pay: we pay for the legal costs of fighting patent battles, built into the price of our stuff. We pay for the technologies that never come to market because of patent fears.

Well said, Cory.