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Open-source Patent Troll

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Open-source Patent Troll

#1

Post by azoff »

I've been writing open-sourced software for a few years now, and never in all these years past have I ever had another person threaten me with patent action on something that I provided for free - for the developer community. Just because I feel bad for this guy, I am not going to post his email address or name, but I will share the email that he sent me:

"""

Azoff,

My name is [ Mr. Troll ]. I am writing you from a company called RazDog.com. We have several patents pending for the rights to navigate like a smart phone on any web content deployed through a browser. We have software which we have had publically available for some time.

We have been made aware of your software which appears to potentially breach our patents pending.

I need you to call me to discuss options ASAP.

Your valuable time is appreciated.

"""

In case you are wondering, the software referred to by Mr. Troll is most likely a jQuery plug-in I currently maintain called OverScroll (http://github.com/azoff/overscroll). I first released it into the public domain back in 2009 (see: http://plugins.jquery.com/node/8738), about the same time RazDog was apparently in the music business and had nothing to do with user interaction on the web (see: http://web.archive.org/web/20090503201355/http://razdog.com/consumers_info.aspx).

Never, ever, in my time as a professional developer did I ever think I would have to deal with this blatant disregard for open-sourced contribution and innovation.

Mr. Troll, you are a vulture.

- Azoff

Re: Open-source Patent Troll

#3

Post by sorbus »

So, they have pending patents. And they think that your software is infringing on those pending patents. Those pending patents, which, being pending, have not yet been granted, and are therefor useless as far as litigation goes. Which makes your existing software prior art. Hmm.

Depending on how you're feeling, either tell the guy to fuck off, or try to get those (pending) patents invalidated.

Re: Open-source Patent Troll

#4

Post by wavesplash »

Issued patent != patent pending. Patent pending has no legal standing and is non-defensible. It just means something was submitted and may or may not be approved sometime in the future (possibly years from now). Talk to a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure they'll tell you to ignore him. If the troll in question hasn't actually submitted a patent you could sue for damages.

If you were hit with an actual patent claim, the first question you ask is what is the patent # and which specific claims are they referencing. Then go back to any referenced patents and see if the claims are unique to the new patent. Of the unique claims then you can make a case if your product infringes or not.

Re: Open-source Patent Troll

#6

Post by ceejayoz »

Anyone tried out RazDog.com? It's basically an entire site as a JavaScript carousel - if anyone can dig up info on the pending patent it should be incredibly easy to shoot down with prior art.

Horrific usability, too.

Re: Open-source Patent Troll

#8

Post by noonespecial »

Don't ignore him! Its would be a very good thing if you'd just call him and explain the prior art to him and gently steer him toward not wasting his time and money pursuing a patent that won't be granted.

Of course you might head off the serendipitous granting of a ridiculous patent that might fall into the hands of a real troll ala Lodsys later. If he refuses to listen to reason, you might look into sending the prior art to the patent office in reference to his application.

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