Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 321 posts

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

#211

Post by rolph »

major505 wrote: post #108
Andrew_Russell wrote: post #44

I am an IP litigator, and I have dealt with patent trolls repeatedly. I have taken these kinds of cases pro bono in the past for small companies (including through the EFF attorney referral list, https://www.eff.org/pages/legal-assistance ), and I know that others have as well. There are definitely low-cost and pro bono (free) options out there for very small businesses. The EFF attorney referral list is a good place…

I'm curious. Can you counter sue a company like that? Since they do affect productive companies, that must be some law against that...

perhaps patenting the entire process of, or a critical component of patent trolling, would be feasible

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

#212

Post by ARandomerDude »

Zircom wrote: post #140
ARandomerDude wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> will just ghost a one man operation or small business I didn't understand this phrase. Does that mean the "good" lawyer is just a false front and the real business is handled by somebody else?

Ghosting means to avoid or stop responding to someone. So he's implying that lawyers may just not even respond since such a small company isn't worth their time, or possibly even just take their money and then "ghost" them after that.

Ah, got it. As in, to disappear like a ghost. Thanks!

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

#213

Post by wvenable »

jabo wrote: post #83
dmabram wrote: post #33

I've been through similar situations. The "find a lawyer" comments are less than helpful, since you probably don't know where to begin and most lawyers will happily take your money without necessarily having an expedient path to resolution for a small one-person company. So here's what you do: Write to each of your competitors, explain the situation and ask for a referral to their lawyers. You'd be surprised how many…

Don’t law firms avoid taking on competing companies as clients to avoid any form of conflict of interest?

Law firms cannot act for a party they've acted against (and vice-versa) without a waiver from their existing client. It can be costly for a firm if they make that mistake.

They can, however, take on competing companies for a single action if they all agree. It's probably best if the firm didn't have a prior relationship with any of them.

(Not a lawyer but I am a software developer who's built a legal conflict of interest search system)

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

#214

Post by ddlsmurf »

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.…

Why wouldn't they just go "fine, let's deal with your next batch in court, good luck keeping them" ?

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

#215

Post by durkie »

Andrew_Russell wrote: post #44

I am an IP litigator, and I have dealt with patent trolls repeatedly. I have taken these kinds of cases pro bono in the past for small companies (including through the EFF attorney referral list, https://www.eff.org/pages/legal-assistance ), and I know that others have as well. There are definitely low-cost and pro bono (free) options out there for very small businesses. The EFF attorney referral list is a good place…

Can confirm! We got a patent troll lawsuit a few years ago as well, and were connected with a great pro-bono lawyer through EFF.

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

#216

Post by denton-scratch »

dathinab wrote: post #150
Buttons840 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about requiring a jury of "peers" who actually know the first thing about the subject matter when these things do go to court.

That is also a good idea, but I would prefer if patent trolls don't even try to go to court. Sadly with many countries law system even if you are in the right they opponent still can drive you to ruine before they lose. So the penalties (for trolling company and lawyer) must be to a point that they won't want to risk abusing the patent system.

Having a jury that knows something about software patents, or about the domain, is emphatically not a good idea. They will second-guess the evidence, ignore the attorneys' pleadings and the judges instructions, and pull a verdict out of their ass, because "they know better".

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

#217

Post by N00bN00b »

denton-scratch wrote: post #197
gnulinux wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never met a single person in my life who didn't ghost multiple people especially in business and dating. Like I receive 10 messages from LinkedIn everyday from recruiters trying to hire me when I'm not on the job market and trying to focus on my job and hobbies. What am I supposed to do? It's clearly rude to ghost friends, acquaintances, business partners etc. But if someone reached out to you with the intenti…

Ignoring some recruiter you've never heard of isn't 'ghosting'. 'Ghosting' is when someone you know, and have a reasonable expectation will take your calls, suddenly stops taking them, without explanation. It's a discourteous and lazy way of dumping a romantic interest.

>It's a discourteous and lazy way of dumping a romantic interest.

Language isn't fixed, the meaning of words, especially "new" words (and ghosting is a new verb) changes over time. That was the original meaning, but it's now applied to all relationships.

>Ghosting is by no means limited to long-term romantic relationships. Informal dating relationships, friendships, even work relationships may end with a form of ghosting.

https://www.psycom.net/what-is-ghosting

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ghosting

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

#218

Post by worik »

silexia wrote: post #178
ethbr0 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People take enough cheap shots at adtech folks, when they offer their perspective. I assume the patent troll approach would be that they're returning value to their investors, while following the law as it stands.

I hope the entire patent system is simply dissolved. Patents are an artificial restriction on free trade that prevents competition and put profits in the pockets of the greedy undeserving.

Patents have their uses. Trade secrets are worse.

We should not through out the baby with the bathwater....

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

#219

Post by gamblor956 »

denton-scratch wrote: post #207
kkielhofner wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Successful" businesses are ruthless at any size. Due to litigation, etc we have internal documents and records dating back to the 80s that demonstrate how ruthless Microsoft (as one example) was even at a time when they were relatively small. I'm not saying this is always the case. I'm saying that unless you're completely desperate or absolutely know otherwise it's the safer assumption.

Not sure why you were downvoted. I nice worked for a Big 5 company. I'm not aware of Machiavellian efforts to destroy competitors; they just bought them. I've worked for an international software company with ~1,500 staff. I do not think our management were inclined to collaborate with their competitors unneccessarily; they had a fiduciary duty to their shareholders. I've worked for two small-town website developers,…

It appears that you're both being downvoted for taking the exceptional case (Microsoft in the 1980s) and applying it to all businesses today.

Even taking into account the different business culture of the 1980s, Microsoft's early ruthlessness is well known precisely because it was not the norm then, and certainly not the norm now.

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

#220

Post by ta1234567890 »

ddlsmurf wrote: post #214
treeman79 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Why wouldn't they just go "fine, let's deal with your next batch in court, good luck keeping them" ?

Because it was probably more expensive (and risky) to go to court and spend a ton of money on lawyers than just pay the license and be done with it.
Post reply on HN