When you're a patent troll "holding firm" who wins a settlement of $612.5 million, what do you do? Take your half billion and head home? No, you head after fatter fish who can afford meatier judgments. NTP's anteing up by suing AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile for patent infringement relating to "the delivery of e-mail to mobile devices," seeking both an injunction and unspecified damages. It's like 2002 all over again—same suit, different defendants.

Really: Five of the eight patents at issue were part of NTP's suit against RIM. This pretty much illustrates the problem with patent trolls: Give them a bone, and they want the whole cow, your car, and the rights to the next 15 generations your family's daughters. No response yet from the Big Four. [Network World via Slashdot, Flickr]

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