According to MacWorld, a small company has filed suit against Google, Apple, and Microsoft over a patent for document previews, claiming it owned the patent before the three companies utilized the technology. The patent was applied for in 2001. The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday.

Will they prevail against three tremendous and very powerful technology companies? Most are assuming it will be very hard. Others are betting that they’ll settle out of court.

My question: hello, guys — this is not new technology and you had plenty of time to react. Why are you suing these companies now?

Forum discussion continues at DigitalPoint Forums.

Additional discussion is at Techmeme.