Intertainer, which was one of the pioneers in delivering movies over the Internet, has sued Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), and Napster Inc. (NASDAQ:NAPS). Intertainer was so early into the Internet movie business that it folded. Or, maybe it was just badly run.

Intertainer claims that the companies listed in its complaint violate patents to its digital entertainment platform.

The idea that Intertainer could collect something on its suit is not entirely insane. Creative Technology brought an IP suit against Apple for certain interfaces on the iPod, and Creative ended up collecting a large settlement.

Burst.com, a defunct server technology company, filed IP suits against Apple and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). Microsoft settled the suit for $60 million.

The only way Intertainer may get any money from its business is to win one of these suits. Some law firm must be willing to take some risk on that.

You never know.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

When you go out of business, you could always sue Google originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Jan 2007 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.