61–70 of 280 posts
This shows everything wrong with IP today. There should be no place for legal bullying. Especially when it's as simple as crushing competitors under litigation costs.
Loser pays makes filing these absurd cases a lot more expensive. If it's destined to lose and it's guaranteed to be paid, finding a lawyer is going to take it on is going to be really easy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
WRT prices of contact lenses, I use an ultrasonic contact lens cleaner with plain saline (Ringer's will also work if that is cheaper in your area), then storing the contact lenses in my lens solution to disinfect. Far better comfort profile, for far longer, than I ever obtained following the manufacturer instructions of 20 seconds rubbing on each side, and 5 seconds rinsing on each side. The saline is half as much as…
dude just go to dailies
Dalies are great if you can have them but they don't fix all conditions.
Ironically, anti-competitive moves like this are only going to accelerate the game of golf's steady decline[0]. I get needing to protect your market as a large player, but when you are the main player and your product is too expensive to buy and the perception is growing that the sport you specialize in is a waste of time and money, what good does it do to push out someone making a cheaper product that may allow begi…
The fact there is a high barrier of entry might be one of the only appeals golf has at all? Playing it is a status symbol. Although, I think maybe that elite status symbols themselves may be on a downswing, maybe because of the growing awareness of wealth inequality? Super rich people used to ride around in stretch limos and people found it interesting and exciting, now there's a growing perception that's disgusting…
Though... I have heard several times that "cycling is the new golf", and the $10,000 bikes some folks wield certainly speaks to the flaunt your wealth side of things.
Anyways, for any expensive activity, I'm sure there are some people doing it as part of the status climb, some doing it to hang out with some power network, and some doing it purely for the joy of the activity.
Addendum: Skiing is way more expensive than golf due to the travel and lodging that is almost a necessity in the States.
> Companies with deep pockets lock down the market by making it too expensive for competitors to operate and to offer lower-priced yet quality products. It is a legitimate tactic; even those who succumb to it don’t really begrudge the approach. Who the hell wrote this article, the CEO of Acushnet? "Don't get the wrong idea, small businesses love being sued over frivolous patents they never infringed upon!"
The whois data for golf-patents.com lean toward this line of reasoning. The domain appears to be registered to an IP law firm. I'm not going to claim that they are a troll or a firm which enables trolls, but it is suspect in itself that they are referenced directly.
Acushnet Company does in fact manufacture, market, and sell golf balls, so it is reasonable that they could bring a patent suit as long as it does not turn out to be frivolous. It would be nice to have a system of laws which makes it fair for genuine victims of infringement to file and try suits without bankrupting competitors before the case is settled.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
dude just go to dailies
Assuming they can. I can't - they don't fix my eyesight. That's actually quite common. Dalies are great if you can have them but they don't fix all conditions.
Is it that you can't make use of "soft" contacts in general for this, or just (presumably) that making contacts to correct for this would be sufficiently costly for daily disposibles as to be infeasible?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which part are you commenting on? Is it the use of the word "legitimate"? Because suing someone for patent infringement is a "legitimate" course of action, i.e. it's a lawful thing to do. In fact (AFAIK IANAL etc etc) it's the only way to ascertain whether a patent is being infringed or not without working with the opposition directly and sharing trade secrets outside the context of a court room with proper protectio…
I think you missed the part where they implied these lawsuits are often completely without merit. It's abuse of the parent system to stifle competition, and we're supposed to believe business owners just shrug it off after they're bullied into bankruptcy? > “We weren’t infringing. But we couldn’t afford to fight the case,” he says. Instead, his company settled the 2015 claims with Acushnet by agreeing to get out of t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fact there is a high barrier of entry might be one of the only appeals golf has at all? Playing it is a status symbol. Although, I think maybe that elite status symbols themselves may be on a downswing, maybe because of the growing awareness of wealth inequality? Super rich people used to ride around in stretch limos and people found it interesting and exciting, now there's a growing perception that's disgusting…
>The fact there is a high barrier of entry might be one of the only appeals golf has at all? This is ridiculous. Golf is a sport that you can play from when you first start walking, until nearly the day you die. That's the appeal. It requires extreme concentration in a way that I've never experienced in any other sport I've ever played. I would highly, highly recommend that people learn to play golf. I wish it didn't…
Ironically, anti-competitive moves like this are only going to accelerate the game of golf's steady decline[0]. I get needing to protect your market as a large player, but when you are the main player and your product is too expensive to buy and the perception is growing that the sport you specialize in is a waste of time and money, what good does it do to push out someone making a cheaper product that may allow begi…
I bought 10 dozen Top Flite Gamer balls as my winter ball (you tend to lose more balls in the winter due to plugging into the ground, taller rough, etc.) for $9.99/dozen on Christmas sale. I play $48/dozen balls regularly as well, but I'm perfectly content playing the $1 ball.
MSRP-wise, Pinnacle balls have been a perfectly fine ball for beginner to intermediate golfers for decades. (I used to be an advanced level player but dropped the game for a decade, and when I picked it up again I opted to use a Pinnacle ball for a few years for the roi)
The reason the Costco ball is alarming to the premium ball manufacturers isn't because a cheap good ball exists now (they always have existed), but because a cheap great ball (i.e. tour pro level) threatened to destroy their margins. Basically, it would destroy the "money buys you performance" marketing mystique (even though for 99% of players, they don't get the clubface/ball contact to get that performance out of the ball anyways).
Also you can get really good equipment for quite cheap on ebay. It's not like technology has changed much for most of the set. My favorite irons are from 1991. (that being said, unless you know someone who really knows their equipment, bargain hunting on ebay might be difficult due to information overload)
The decline of the game is due to a variety of factors. Most important of these is Tiger Woods' demise, and secondary factors include pace of play at golf courses (rounds should be less than 4 hours, not 5+) as well as the inflated prices at many of these places that happened during the boom years.
Why not just make a $1 ball using all of the expired 1990's era patents from the top manufacturers. You'd make a mint. Name it the Patentless.