I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
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Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#2Ask YC subtopic: Have you ever been the target of a frivolous IP lawsuit? How do you deal with it?
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#3Ack! Best of luck deflecting the lawsuit. Hopefully it won't be too hard, as there are so many other defendants. Lawsuits like this make me glad I'm a law student, so I can graduate and fight against them.
voo2do is a great service; I used it quite extensively two years ago.
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#4Another subtopic: What's CI's potential return on investment in this round of lawsuits? What is the cost of filing a patent? What is the cost of bringing a patent lawsuit? What percentage of small companies settle? And for how much?
I look at a company like Remember The Milk and wonder how much they could possibly afford to pay. A quick back of the envelope calculation based on compete.com, 170k visitors/month. Let's say that 80k are customers and 8k are paying customers ($25/year), and that their yearly revenue is $200k. They have three or four full time people and increasing traffic.
I guess a company like that could afford to pay $10-20k/annual for a license. That might even be considered a good business decision given that with their current revenue they probably don't have a lot of money in the bank to fight a legal battle now, but that with their growth they have future profits that should make this a minor annoyance.
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#5Another subtopic: What's CI's potential return on investment in this round of lawsuits? What is the cost of filing a patent? What is the cost of bringing a patent lawsuit? What percentage of small companies settle? And for how much? I look at a company like Remember The Milk and wonder how much they could possibly afford to pay. A quick back of the envelope calculation based on compete.com, 170k visitors/month. Let's…
A patent is much more valuable if it's upheld in court. I thought that was the idea behind patent trolling: get a bullshit patent, go after a bunch of little guys, try some kind of divide and conquer strategy with them, hope you win and get your bullshit patent upheld. Your patent is now much stronger and more dangerous. Congratulations, you're a litigious douchebag.
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#6Another subtopic: What's CI's potential return on investment in this round of lawsuits? What is the cost of filing a patent? What is the cost of bringing a patent lawsuit? What percentage of small companies settle? And for how much? I look at a company like Remember The Milk and wonder how much they could possibly afford to pay. A quick back of the envelope calculation based on compete.com, 170k visitors/month. Let's…
One possibility, and this is just speculation, and I am not a lawyer, is that CI is targeting a number of small players in the hope that we will settle or lose, thereby providing some precedent that their patent has succeeded in litigation. They could then point at our pile of bodies when threatening companies that actually have money.
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#7Ack! Best of luck deflecting the lawsuit. Hopefully it won't be too hard, as there are so many other defendants. Lawsuits like this make me glad I'm a law student, so I can graduate and fight against them. voo2do is a great service; I used it quite extensively two years ago.
Thanks, man! I don't think they can win a royalty on kind words, which has been my biggest payoff from Voo2do.
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#8Ask YC subtopic: Have you ever been the target of a frivolous IP lawsuit? How do you deal with it?
Shimon, sorry to hear this. As soon as you find a good lawyer, I wouldn't worry about it psychologically. This "patent" is total bullshit; the absence of big players such as eBay and Amazon leads me to believe that they are going after easier targets in order to establish a legal precedence so that they may go after the big guys later.
You're also in good company. I would take pride in that at the very least.
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#9a friend of mine has a site on that list. perhaps there's a way you can all band together and use a single attorney. plus the eff is a great resource.
i'm sure amazon will want to help somehow as they most certainly have prior art. and didn't they set up a website years ago to help people discover prior art?
Re: I just got sued for patent infringement for operating the voo2do.com todo list
#10Another subtopic: What's CI's potential return on investment in this round of lawsuits? What is the cost of filing a patent? What is the cost of bringing a patent lawsuit? What percentage of small companies settle? And for how much? I look at a company like Remember The Milk and wonder how much they could possibly afford to pay. A quick back of the envelope calculation based on compete.com, 170k visitors/month. Let's…
A patent is much more valuable if it's upheld in court. I thought that was the idea behind patent trolling: get a bullshit patent, go after a bunch of little guys, try some kind of divide and conquer strategy with them, hope you win and get your bullshit patent upheld. Your patent is now much stronger and more dangerous. Congratulations, you're a litigious douchebag.
So these lawsuits are still part of the investment in douchebaggery and the return comes later. Interesting.