Ric Richardson

Frederick "Ric" Richardson
Born Frederick Bailier Richardson III
1962
Sydney, Australia
Residence Northern Rivers, New South Wales[1]
Nationality Australian
Occupation Inventor, founder
Known for Settling a large patent infringement case against Microsoft
Home town Sydney
Spouse(s) Karen Richardson
Children Lily Richardson

Ric Richardson is an Australian inventor recognised for his early invention of a form of Product activation used in anti-piracy. He is the Inventor of record for a number of U.S. patents, including the Uniloc patent US5490216 and the Logarex patent 6400293. Richardson grew up in Sydney and currently resides just outside Byron Bay.

He founded Uniloc to commercialise[2] his invention and in 2003 it became a licensing company that has sought to license some of the patents he is a named inventor of, from as early as 1992. The machine fingerprinting technology is used to stop copyright infringement; it was developed as Richardson worked on his own software called One-Step and later Truetime. He is now an independent inventor, and is seeking to develop technologies including ship designs, shark warning systems[3] and password replacement technology.[4]

Microsoft court case

In Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp., a jury awarded Uniloc US$388 million against Microsoft for their infringement of a product activation patent licensed to Uniloc.[5] The application before the court to go to trial was originally blocked by a summary judgement for Microsoft.[6] A jury found that Microsoft products Windows XP, Office XP, and Windows Server 2003 infringed the Uniloc patent.[6] They found damages and found that Microsoft's conduct was willful. The presiding U.S. District Court Judge William Smith disagreed as a matter of law, overturning the jury's verdict and ruling in favour of Microsoft.[7] This ruling was appealed, and reversed.[8] Microsoft later settled, paying an undisclosed amount.[9]

Profile as an Australian Inventor

As a result of the publicity surrounding the case, Richardson has been the subject of two Australian Story episodes. The first called "The Big Deal" aired in August 2009 and covered the initial win of $388 million by a jury in Rhode Island. The second entitled "A Done Deal" aired in April 2012 and covered the subsequent ups and down that followed the original story culminating in the eventual settlement with Microsoft.

As a result of the widespread support for his successful infringement action, Richardson makes a practise of spending time free of charge with Inventors who appreciate his time on Friday mornings in Cafe's in and around Byron Bay. He has also initiated a number of local invention projects to solve local problems such as the Shark attack issue in Byron Bay.[10] Richardson is working on a solution that uses standard sonar systems in an early warning matrix that alerts beach users of the proximity of large animals in the immediate vicinity. The advantage is that the only animals over 2.5 metres long in the waters near Byron Bay are large turtles, whales, manta rays or sharks.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Residence in Northern Rivers NSW
  2. ↑ "ABC National News announces Uniloc deal with IBM". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2016-07-15.
  3. ↑ Elloise Farrow-Smith (27 December 2015). "Byron Bay residents test shark sonar in bid to keep surfers safe". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2009-08-26.
  4. ↑ Andrew Colley. "Microsoft patent victor Ric Richardson working on no-password security breakthrough". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 2015-12-27.
  5. ↑ "Australian Story - The Big Deal - Transcript". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 24 August 2009. Retrieved 25 August 2009.
  6. 1 2 Renai LeMay and Ina Fried (15 April 2009). "Aussie first wins US$388m MS suit". ZDNet Australia. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2009-09-06.
  7. ↑ Moses, Asher (30 September 2009). "Aussie inventor's $445m Microsoft windfall wiped out". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
  8. ↑ Moses, Asher (8 January 2011). "Inventor wins Microsoft appeal". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 2011-10-07.
  9. ↑ "Ric Richardson wins multi-million dollar legal battle with Microsoft". news.com.au. 15 March 2012.
  10. ↑ "Shark sonar is on Byron Bay inventor's radar". ABC News. 2015-09-17. Retrieved 2016-07-25.
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