Google: Billions of dollars to piss away on stupid ideas.
Yeah... he's not going to win.
See Microsoft versus the poor sap who trademarked "Internet Explorer". He had a black and white ownership of the trademark. He sued MS, and we all know what the result was: they're still using the name "Internet Explorer"
Why? They buried him with lawyers. Then, offered to pay his legal expenses if he stopped the lawsuit, and turned over the trademark to them.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/02/business/microsoft-settles...
If anyone thinks the justice system is about justice, you're deluded.
Us: Gullible
Edit: Downvotes please explain why I should believe everything I read on the internet.
What it boils down to is that when an attorney sends an accusation to your legal team, your legal team has to respond. The bigger the company, the more nonsense requests they can afford to send to your team which drives up your legal expenses in terms of billable hours. They can't not-respond.
The old "get 50 boxes of files" when requesting an single paper trope is a thing that actually does happen.
The bigger the opposition, the more of those requests will come across and the more things your team will have to respond to. If you had a $2000 dispute with a huge company, if they wanted to they could ensure that your legal bill was hundreds of thousands of dollars, which increases your personal level of risk if you lose the case. If you lose, you're bankrupt.
The only way you can afford to get in a court battle like that is if you have that type of money to risk.
Source: Friends with a lot of lawyers for some reason
I don't dispute that. I think it's common knowledge, particularly among techies who are all too familiar with patent trolls.
Lawsuits aren't the only option. He could also go to the press. Unless this guy settled a suit, he's not legally bound to be vague. As it is, it's another unverifiable claim on the internet from an anonymous source. Too many to count.
Angry pitch fork Internet mobs don't like skeptics. They probably would have been superstitiously burning witches 1000 years ago but now there's a different work of Satan to get all frothed up about. It's ridiculous. Google has done an immeasurable amount of good in the world by bringing knowledge to millions of people. By helping cross cultural barriers and disseminate ways of thinking. Unlike most "startups" Google really has changed the world. But hey, a professor got fired and some opportunistic journalist is making un-evidenced spin, so fire the torches up. If you don't get with the mob you are obviously a witch as well.
As for Google Places results being listed higher, if they were search results being artificially boosted, that's one thing; however, showing callouts that provide the information immediately is pretty clearly better from a user perspective, which makes it hard to show harm to the users.
Of course, you can sue over anything, but whether it makes sense to win is another question.