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Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

blog.comma.ai

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Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#61

Post by sometimeshuman »

I suspect this is more common than one might think especially for smaller companies that have enough cash/revenue to be collectable but too small to afford litigation or to take a principled stance like comma.ai plans to do. Ten years ago my business was a pioneer in smartphone/flip-phone enabled home-automation. We had barely been in business for a few months and doing ~$4k in monthly sales. A troll claimed he owned patent that covered using a phone to send a command to any electronic device/appliance. He eventually stopped calling me and his patent was for landline based cordless phones but I kept wondering if he would resurface years later once I had momentum but he never did.

Oddly I am now fighting a trademark dispute with a company that claims "non-metal shelves and storage" in their trademark. What that has to do with my home-automation smartphone app, who knows. This is all a reminder that we live in the most litigious country in the world.

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#62

Post by pclmulqdq »

frellus wrote: post #52

I frankly don't understand why a judge or jury would ever find for a company which has no revenue, other than through litigation settlements. I mean if they're not even selling a license or royalties for their patents, any cases should be dismissed. We can call it the "use it or lose it" rule for patents.

Not every company that has no revenue other than through lawsuits got there by choice. Someone can copy your invention and sell it for less (or give it out for free), and you will be screwed.

There are lots of calls for exponentially escalating fees for patents over their life, and I think that is a much better idea than "use it or lose it."

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#64

Post by caf »

vorpalhex wrote: post #59
runnerup wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old Newegg. That lawyer has moved on along with the rest of the leadership after a change in ownership. Also George Hotz fought and cowed Sony’s legal team when he was a kid in a saga involving ‘marcan42 of Asahi Linux. These patent trolls must be very foolish to try to intimidate him. Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Computer_Entertainment_...

Ok you can't tease us with a story and not at least link it.

Suggested search term: geohot

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#65

Post by roastedpeacock »

In prior history Hotz was targeted by Sony for his independent research into running homebrew applications on the PS3 game-console. Unfortunately Sony objected to this and launched legal action[1] against Hotz and others which sadly ended in Hotz settling to not research Sony products again and did not set a good precedent towards such work.

Different situation but hopefully better outcome this time...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Computer_Entertainment_Am...

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#66

Post by cyber_kinetist »

thfuran wrote: post #14
j-bos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strikes me that a lot of today's ills would be solved (or replaced) by more individual agency. Gold applause to Hotz.

It seems to me that considerably more of today's ills would be solved by more collective action.

The two things aren't opposing concepts. We need individual agency through collective action.

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#68

Post by thfuran »

btilly wrote: post #28
thfuran wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take for instance the problem of patent trolls, which could be much more comprehensively solved by regulatory/legal reform than by one guy with a well-funded legal team.

The last time Congress took on comprehensive regulatory/legal reform of patents, the result was https://cafc.uscourts.gov/home/the-court/about-the-court/cou... . Most of the problems with software patents trace back, in one way or another, to that court. What makes you think the current broken legislative system has a chance at a reform that makes things better in a way that you'd like?

>What makes you think the current broken legislative system has a chance at a reform that makes things better in a way that you'd like

That's a false premise.

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#69

Post by happyopossum »

keepquestioning wrote: post #63

I have a dumb question about patent trolls. How do they figure out whether stuff is truly infringing a patent in the first place? Surely some corporate espionage is required to figure this out?

They often don’t know, and hope to either settle or find evidence during discovery.
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