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Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
201–210 of 318 posts
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#202Don't forget: https://patents.stackexchange.com.
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#203There 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 po…
At 10k a year this is very unlikely to work. Few startups will pay that to protect against a threat that, practically speaking, is very rather unlikely. The fee needs to be an order of magnitude lower. Incidentally it will open up this service to a much wider range of companies, so it may actually be easier to pull off.
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#204I always admired George, his simplicity and vision. But after this I respect him even more: What he didn’t take into account is that 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. We will hire an amazing legal team, fight this, and while doing so invalidate his patents so they can’t be used against anyone else. Not becau…
> This only can come from a strong character.
You need to be able to afford it.
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 po…
At 10k a year this is very unlikely to work. Few startups will pay that to protect against a threat that, practically speaking, is very rather unlikely. The fee needs to be an order of magnitude lower. Incidentally it will open up this service to a much wider range of companies, so it may actually be easier to pull off.
one does not need to start with 20 people, if one doesn't have enough paying customers either...
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#206The patent system is filled with batshit insane patents that are ridiculously broad.
After I left Yahoo!, I was informed my name was put on two patents. Apparently I helped invent US8843560B2 "Social networking for mobile devices" and US10049381B2 "Mobile Monetization".
You all owe me money. Well, to Yahoo! actually, but whatever. Pay up.
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#207There 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 po…
Maybe YC could be the target customer? They bankroll a single company as insurance against all their investments being targets of attacks.
They can afford it. They might attract all the best startups as a result, if those feel better protected.
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
It should be noted that atleast in Germany, you can't just run up the lawyer bills. There are standard rates and you only pay "necessary costs". That means one lawyer. At standard rate. And only for what they did in the court room. That means what you pay the other side in legal costs is usually less than what you paid your lawyer. Though you pay other fees too and in total IIRC it usually amounts to about 150-200% o…
Correct. I sued a party in Germany, won the case, got awarded 10K in legal costs (which actually was quite high, but it was a complete travesty) and another 25K in damages as well as annulment of whatever the suit was about. Then the party I sued absconded to the US (he already had a house there and his family was already living there) and simply never returned. The real legal bill was 50K. But at least the annulment…
Did you sue them as a company or as a person? Because AFAIK it is always a good idea to have lawyer insurance in Germany, however that would only work if you are a person, not a company.
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#209Seriously, at which point this starts affecting the choice founders make in which legal jurisdiction to base their startup?
Personally, despite many advantages I would avoid doing any new technology startup in US.
Re: Patent Trolls Inbound: Our First Lawsuit
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct. I sued a party in Germany, won the case, got awarded 10K in legal costs (which actually was quite high, but it was a complete travesty) and another 25K in damages as well as annulment of whatever the suit was about. Then the party I sued absconded to the US (he already had a house there and his family was already living there) and simply never returned. The real legal bill was 50K. But at least the annulment…
Did you sue them as a company or as a person? Because AFAIK it is always a good idea to have lawyer insurance in Germany, however that would only work if you are a person, not a company.
As a company. Long story short, someone angled for years to have a partnership with us, finally got it and the day after the ink dried on the contract sold the rights to the source code to another company. That's not how that works...