I had an email along these lines last year -- someone accusing me of violating his patent application.
Just junk it.
Open-source Patent Troll
11–20 of 24 posts
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#12"In fact, the most common reaction we hear is Wow! literally."
Strike 2, RazDog.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#13I'm not a patent lawyer, but from what I can pull up from my patent law class notes:
Troll is quite possibly blocked by the public use doctrine. Anything that's been in public use without being patented for a year or more goes into the public domain (35 usc 102(b) for anyone who cares). If he filed on or after June 23, 2010, he failed.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#14Please do this the right way. Any issue concerning IP and claims of infringement or violation of rights requires due diligence on both sides. At a very minimum, you should read the transcript of Andrew Tridgell's talk on patent defense at http://news.swpat.org/2010/03/transcript-tridgell-patents.
That your software is open-source is entirely orthogonal to the issue of infringement.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#15Don'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 prio…
Downvote? Really? I just thought that maybe the guy might actually not be the awful troll that we instinctively leap to the conclusion that he is. He might just be a guy who really doesn't grok how all this works.
Could a simple call to find out really be that bad. (seriously IANAL so I really don't know)
I think he's just an idiot who happens to be inadvertently trolling. Not a professional troll. It seems like he really does want to sell his goofy cloud motion and probably thinks he's the new new. Whatever.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#16Issued 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 fi…
As I understand it, defending a patent suit is not cheap even if you're completely in the right.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#17Anyone 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.
They also hold another patent, filed in 2007, for an online media player with very vague detailings. I am a fan of patents, but this company is over shotting their bounds.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#18So, 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.
You're missing the crucial point of submarine patents: if approved, they are enforced as of the date they were filed. So pending patents can in fact be used as a cudgel, to get licensees to pay for a guarantee that if the patent is approved, they won't be socked with outlandish royalty demands. It's like insurance. To a first approximation, the value of a pending patent is proportional to the probability that it will eventually be approved.
I'm reminded of Tony Soprano to an unhappy customer: "Satisfaction guaranteed, or double your garbage back!"
ps: recent rule changes mean that some patents (those that will be filed outside of the US) will be published 18 months after filing, even if they are not yet approved. Possibly not relevant here, as the troll would presumably want you to see the pending patent to prove the legitimacy of his threat.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#19Wow, thanks for all the feedback.
I'm happy there are others who have dealt with this before. I hate to sound like a bleeding heart, but it is really sad that any troll can effectively axe an open-sourced project like this. I really hope that it won't come to litigation.
Re: Open-source Patent Troll
#20Have you read over the afore mentioned patent?
No, because no reference was ever provided in the original email