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Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

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Re: Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

#181

Post by bitwize »

kian wrote: post #152
bitwize wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To "ghost" someone is to avoid them without a response. The term probably came from personal relationships (e.g., a woman you were dating starts "ghosting" you). It was previously considered rude but is now appropriate to avoid potentially toxic personal or professional relationships.

Pretty sure it's still considered rude.

You're obviously not a woman who has had to deal with potentially threatening people in your love life. Among women ghosting is 100% a legitimate way to refuse a second/third/etc. date. In business, companies routinely ghost candidates they're not interested in because of the hassle and risk in interacting with candidates who are clearly no-hires. You don't owe anyone with whom you do not have a solid established relationship an interaction.

Re: Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

#182

Post by FabHK »

eloff wrote: post #78
kkielhofner wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I generally appreciate the altruism of this advice but there's a huge risk in that the competitors likely won't set aside the spirit of competition, whatever they've spent/done to deal with this, etc to help out a competitor. I, personally, would not risk this approach.

Honestly if a competitor came to me for help with a patent troll who'd previously targeted me, I'd bend over backwards to assist. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

> The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

This could also mean that the patent troll (the enemy of your competitor) is your friend.

Re: Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

#183

Post by 0z8 »

sonthonax wrote: post #117
0z8 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's a loophole there. If you're making, selling, or using technology that is patented by another party, you're infringing, even if you aren't the creator of that technology.

What is the threshold for indirect patent infringement? For instance, I don't fear being sued personally for using Microsoft office (which I'm sure infringes on something).

Not a lawyer, but as far as I understand there's no threshold or legal distinction between direct and indirect. It's all direct.

There's the angle of "how much $ can I extract" that comes into play, which is based on damages incurred from infringement. If you're not making money or preventing the patent holder from making money, you're not worth harassing.

Re: Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

#184

Post by jjeaff »

treeman79 wrote: post #175
oh_sigh wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as the patent is valid there is nothing racketeering about it.

Had a professor who wat was at big company. Forget which. IBM came in with a list of patents that were being violated. Professor went through the list and managed to document fully how each one didn’t apply to company. One of which was for pythagorean theorem. They had another meeting to go over it with IBM to show results. Not impressed IBM said fine you don’t violate those. We have a hundred thousand more patents.…

That is basically just a rephrasing of, "This is an awfully nice store you got here. Would be a shame if something were to happen to it."

Re: Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

#186

Post by rhino369 »

kkielhofner wrote: post #57
jblake wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I have not personally been served, I found out about it via emails from two different patent attorney firms offering their services, with the lawsuit attached as a courtesy. The lawsuit looks legit to me. I live in Tahoe so don't get mail but will check today and also check with my registered agent in Reno. Can you recommend me a patent attorney? Any idea on how much this could cost?

Wow, that's a (really sleazy) angle I haven't heard of before. I wouldn't respond (at all) to any unsolicited e-mails from random groups offering their "services" in this matter. This sounds almost like a patent version of the car warranty scam - "Warning - this is our last notice. You may be responsible for all repairs!" Yeah, ok... Unfortunately the patent attorneys I've worked with are in very large international…

I wouldn’t respond to people cold emailing either.

However, the difference between this and the warranty scam is that the complaint they are attaching is 100% real.

It’s more like a mechanic emailing you saying, hey I notice your car was broken down on the side of the road.

Re: Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

#189

Post by MikeDelta »

I see a lot of articles online when searching for "QR database download patent lawsuit". It seems patent trolls are very active in the QR field.

Such a shame for innovations in this area. I hope something can be done, but I am sceptical.

Can you work around the patent?

Re: Ask HN: I was hit with a patent troll lawsuit, how do I deal with it?

#190

Post by oh_sigh »

shmerl wrote: post #168
oh_sigh wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as the patent is valid there is nothing racketeering about it.

You can assume in the vast majority of cases patent trolls don't have valid patents. And if even if they are "valid", the patent system is so messed up, that they have to be invalid in reality. Trolls' method is exactly racketeering because it's extorting money using threat tactics. "You don't want something worse happening to you? Better pay up XYZ amount!" . It's not going get much more classic protection racket th…

Without knowing the content of the patents(merely that they are valid) - would you be able to differentiate between a patent troll and someone with a great patent that wants their hard work licensed instead of taken for free?
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