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Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

blog.comma.ai

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101–110 of 318 posts

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#101

Post by prvit »

runnerup wrote: post #79
artdigital wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't he settle with Sony with the promise to never hack any other sony products in the future? (source wikipedia)

In my opinion, for someone his age that’s essentially a victory if it doesn’t involve any payments or criminal repercussions. In theory, marcan42 would have been subject to a very similar or same settlement but he went on to continue working on Sony stuff without repercussion: “In 2016, he ported Linux to the PlayStation 4 and demonstrated that at the 33rd Chaos Communication Congress by running Steam inside Linux.”…

There was no chance he would’ve ended up with any of the things you mention.

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#102

Post by sbf501 »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #8

Any engineer who has ever filed a software patent soon realizes that the entire patent system in America (at least with respect to software) is a scam. It seems to be designed to enrich lawyers and tax engineers. It's almost like all the kids in school who failed out of CS 101 went to law school and cooked up a scheme to tax their classmates who actually stuck it out and built something. Why the hell do we have a sys…

I've filed multiple (hardware) patents in previous companies. Which part, exactly, is a scam?

I think the only reasonable criticisms of the patent system is a lack of intelligent lawyers in the areas of discipline that often fail finding similar claims in other filings, and that patents only benefit large companies, not DIY garage makers like the rest of the world thinks.

I also think your shitting on lawyers is typical of people that don't really understand legal frameworks. Would you find it reasonable if I said: "software engineers are such a joke, everything they do is so over complicated just so they can get rich like those SanFran dudebros, and for what, so that I can shit in a smart toilet with a web browser and AI? How stupid." ... Oh, shit. Wait a second... :)

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#103

Post by hedora »

ummonk wrote: post #90

There needs to be an anti-patent-troll membership organization. You pay a fee relative to some metric and the organization acts as insurance against parent trolls by fully defending any patent lawsuits that are obviously unjustified. And to keep costs low, membership in this organization would be public to deter patent trolls from even trying to sue a member in the first place.

Such things definitely exist in the form of mutually assured destruction cartels. All the members license all their patents to everyone in the cartel. If anyone (external or not) sues anyone in the pact, it automatically cancels any patent licenses they have from members of the cartel, and the cartel launches a patent enforcement suit using their combined portfolio.

Of course, none of that helps with patent trolls, just like the ability to turn Russia to radioactive glass doesn't defend Washington DC from an independent actor with a suitcase nuke.

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#105

Post by dpifke »

ummonk wrote: post #90

There needs to be an anti-patent-troll membership organization. You pay a fee relative to some metric and the organization acts as insurance against parent trolls by fully defending any patent lawsuits that are obviously unjustified. And to keep costs low, membership in this organization would be public to deter patent trolls from even trying to sue a member in the first place.

It's not quite what you're describing, but you can join Open Invention Network for free:

https://openinventionnetwork.com/

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#107

Post by Underphil »

dfraser992 wrote: post #50
linuxhansl wrote: post #45

In every western country - except the US and England - the loser pays for the cost of the trial (all parties' lawyer fees + the court). Just this reduces frivolous lawsuits. If you have a good case, sure, go ahead. If your case is weak, you run a real risk paying not only for your lawyers but the other side as well. (Note that there are disadvantages to loser-pays as well. Image you legitimately want to sue corporati…

No, in the UK, the loser will pay for court costs, in general. I had a bit of legal trouble a few years ago - the other side was trying to play "solicitor" to use the law as a way of extorting me (aka threatening to make criminal complaints over various (bullshit) things) so I had to hire someone to write a polite 'go fuck yourself' letter eventually. Solicitors are duty-bound to try and get things to settle out of c…

"What's unique about the UK is that unlike actually civilized countries (incl. the US)"

I needed a good laugh today, so thanks.

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#108

Post by hedora »

sometimeshuman wrote: post #78

"comma isn’t run by rational actors in suits sitting on a committee. It’s run by me, George Hotz. I’m willing to lose $1M before I give him $10k." This stance is admirable but comma.ai is partly owned by investors. Isn't he obliged to find the lowest cost solution to this ? Or is George Hotz planning to spend his personal money on the lawsuit ?

This is the lowest cost solution. If you pay the troll once, they'll come back over and over again (and so will their friends).

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#109

Post by Yoofie »

paulgb wrote: post #41

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20170170984 If you cut through the lawyer-speak, claim #1 is basically about MITM-ing the vehicle's internal message bus. Hardly novel, even in 2007.

Wow. The fact that this patent was even granted tells me we have morons in the patent offices or that there is serious corruption going on.

Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit

#110

Post by wombatpm »

ummonk wrote: post #90

There needs to be an anti-patent-troll membership organization. You pay a fee relative to some metric and the organization acts as insurance against parent trolls by fully defending any patent lawsuits that are obviously unjustified. And to keep costs low, membership in this organization would be public to deter patent trolls from even trying to sue a member in the first place.

Run the numbers:

Assuming you need a legal staff of 20 with avg cost 500k per. So that’s 10 million per year. Double it for rent, SGA, etc. we’re at 20 million per year.

Offer a protection package at 10k per year, you need 2000 paying customers. Since all the lawyers are on staff, you can have them invalidating patents when not defending case. If you structure it like a mutual insurance company, you could return a portion of premium based on expenses once a war chest is amassed.

Is this something I could take to y-combinator?

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