PANIP - did anyone hear of this?

Dear all of you,

I have been lurking and learning on this mailing list for a long 
time. Thank you for being such good teachers :-)

Now I have something here I do not know how to deal with and I 
figured that the business mailing list may enlighten me here.

I've made an e-commerce site for a friend of mine and she has gotten 
news about this company PANIP LLC (Pangea Intellectual Properties in 
San Diego) who is suing companies all over the country claiming that 
graphical and textural information on a video screen and accepting 
information to conduct automatic financial transactions via a 
telephone line & video screen is infringing their two patents (US 
Patent No 5,576,951 and US Patent No 6,289,319).

Here is a link to a site of a group of Panip Defendants: 
http://www.youmaybenext.com

Here are my questions:
Did anybody hear about this?
Does my friend who has a small business for computer accessories have 
to look out for those guys?
What do you suggest I tell my friend so she can have a sound sleep again?

Thanks a lot for your input,

Doris


PS. If this is something that is not supposed to be discussed on the 
list I'll be happy to discuss this off-list. Thanks.

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