The American patent system is a dead weight drag on the American software economy. The quality of software patents is atrocious, and the value of the tiny fraction of good patents in this space does not make up for the Billions lost to trolls and the costs of administering the system.
Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
411–420 of 431 posts
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#412Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm reading this thread with a similar wonder: they seem to be blaming everything but the broken legal system. Google should fix it, East-Texas should fix it, Texas should fix it, donation to legal funds should fix it, insurance should fix it, more campaigning and lobbying should fix it, we should let them fight to the death that will fix it! Hmhm. Quite :)
> I'm reading this thread with a similar wonder: they seem to be blaming everything but the broken legal system. Except they are blaming the legal system, as you yourself enumerate: > more campaigning and lobbying should fix it Campaigning and lobbying are ways of effecting change to the system of laws.
> Campaigning and lobbying are ways of effecting change to the system of laws.
Yes of course they are. But that way those with the biggest army of lobbyists and campaign donations are going to decide what your laws will be. This is part of your problem, not your solution!
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is this fundamentally different from our beloved SV startups organizing themselves as Delaware C-Corps?
One is a parasite on anyone who would dare innovate, and the other is trying to avoid overpaying taxes.
Less to do with taxes, more to do with having a well established and understood regulations and legal system.
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#414Couldn't Google offer defense in such cases for its users? Every case is the same so it shouldn't even be that expensive (I guess, IANAL), and it would discourage future cases because the troll would know he will have to fight against Google.
I guess I am stupid, why isn't Google the defendant, other than the fact they have too much money. This is like being sued for shopping at the wrong store.
Yes, that is part of the patent law. 35.271.a:
... whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention ... infringes the patent.
That is why that one copier patent troll (can't remember the specifics) files suit against businesses that purchase copier, but not the manufactures themselves.
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it is important to acknowledge why people do things they do. - Somali pirates and Congolese poachers: poor and miserable conditions with no perspective to get out of it - patent trolls: greedy, moral-less legal positivists - serial killers: psychopaths - ISIS terrorists: brainwashed losers, who want easy answers, a mission, a group and a leader - child molesters: I would say mentally ill If you see it like th…
I don't know how you can "fix" paedophilia, any more than you can "fix" psychopathy. AFAICT, they're both mental disorders that are very deep-seated and probably unfixable, at least until we have better biomedical technology and a better understanding of the human brain. There's probably ways we might be able to identify these people as high-risk and put them in programs to monitor them and help them avoid committing…
> but that's more of a work-around than a fix
Depends on your point of view. In the point of view of a paedophile, sterilisation might not seem like a fix, society itself thinks different.
>Patent trolls aren't much different from serial killers, though: they're both socio/psychopaths (same thing really)
I thought so, too, but then did decided to not call them that, because I imagine that many of them are just not "into market economy" (you get money in exchange for providing value). They see a gap in the law and try to take it from "the big guys", who have it anyway. There are many other groups of people, who think that they are somehow entitled to get money they did not provide value for.
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#416Couldn't Google offer defense in such cases for its users? Every case is the same so it shouldn't even be that expensive (I guess, IANAL), and it would discourage future cases because the troll would know he will have to fight against Google.
Good guy Google should definitely be stepping in here
I won't hold my breath
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#417Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know how you can "fix" paedophilia, any more than you can "fix" psychopathy. AFAICT, they're both mental disorders that are very deep-seated and probably unfixable, at least until we have better biomedical technology and a better understanding of the human brain. There's probably ways we might be able to identify these people as high-risk and put them in programs to monitor them and help them avoid committing…
> but that's more of a work-around than a fix Depends on your point of view. In the point of view of a paedophile, sterilisation might not seem like a fix, society itself thinks different. >Patent trolls aren't much different from serial killers, though: they're both socio/psychopaths (same thing really) I thought so, too, but then did decided to not call them that, because I imagine that many of them are just not "i…
>They see a gap in the law and try to take it from "the big guys", who have it anyway.
There's a difference between suing Google or MS for patent violations, and suing some small business that's just selling an app on Google Play store. These patent trolls are frequently going after small companies because they know they're more likely to settle. That's sociopathic, it's not like Robin Hood.
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#418A while back, I did some research into patent trolls, and came across the history of NPE firms that do DPA (defensive patent aggregation), like RPX [0]. What surprised me from a game theoretical perspective was how murky things got. These situations can be tough on entrepreneurs and seem to create space for said entrepreneur to purchase protection in the form of patent aggregation to mitigate against potential devast…
Interesting, his case is in their search tool: https://search.rpxcorp.com/lit/txedce-138585-uniloc-v-lamina...
From what I recall, they acquire IP when its from companies in this situation. I'm not a betting person, but I would not be surprised if this situation was a good opportunity for RPX's PR.
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#419I find it oddly funny how Google hasn't stepped in to support their "clients", I'd think they'd help shutdown patent trolls so developers can continue to improve and distribute applications
Agreed. They should fight this patent, especially since Be Inc. had an online app store back in 1999.
The first AppStore was even older, it was made for NeXTSTEP, Steve Jobs bought the whole thing.
Re: Being sued, in East Texas, for using the Google Play Store [video]
#420Earlier quoted context omitted.
Software is not patentable in Brazil either. Honest question: have anyone seen any software innovation been really protected by a patent litigation? All articles I have seen are about trolls.
Well if you're going to ask that question, I'm going to ask a corollary: Has anyone seen any innovation that has been really protected by patents, that couldn't have been protected merely with trade secrets and industrial capability (i.e., big companies are physically and organizationally able to make things that small companies cannot due to their resources, therefore they're really the last ones to need patent prot…
Medicine, for example, they have to tell what's inside the bottle.