I guess it's true - the big pink elephant standing the the middle of the room - the one everyone tries to ignore - but can't. 

What David wrote to me yesterday about Nielsen Netratings suing other web analytics vendors for patent infringement, on the face of it, is true.  

According to David, who wrote me earlier:

"…If you go to NetRatings.com, click on press releases and search for Patent you can find out more about their patent "enforcement" program. This has also been a prominent topic in their last several earnings calls which you can probably find online too.

Netratings has been on a patent acquisition spree for the last several
years, almost all of their patents have been purchased. These patents were originally filed by such companies as Red Sheriff (AU), Engage and Media Metrix.

"NetRatings? patent portfolio includes United States Patent Nos.
5,675,510; 5,796,952; 6,108,637; 6,115,680; 6,138,155; 6,643,696 and 6,763,386"…

And I did do exactly what David said and found 141 documents - many of them focused on patent enforcement.