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Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

blog.cloudflare.com

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Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#41

Post by jotaen »

ceejayoz wrote: post #32
Laaas wrote: post #8

What would be required to get a court to order Sable pay the legal fees Cloudflare incurred?

Quite a bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_rule_(attorney%27s_fe... Versus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_rule_(attorney%27s_fee... in much of the rest of the world.

Is this still true, considering how the Supreme Court has decided a similar case against patent trolls[1][2] in the past?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_Fitness,_LLC_v._ICON_He....

[2]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2014/04/29/patent-...

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#42

Post by fargle »

Awesome job! Thank you cloudflare.

maybe this is the path to kill the trolls. tech companies could fund an insurance-like mutual scheme to defend instead of pay off the trolls and then drive them out of business. it can also research and invalidate their ridiculous patents.

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#43

Post by hsuduebc2 »

djbusby wrote: post #7

Lots of patent hate in the first few comments. If we take the position that an inventor should be able to try and get profit from their invention how can we protect that without patent system?

I'm not sure how much is current system effective today when biggest world producer's just can decide they are not going to respect that.

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#44

Post by eli »

connicpu wrote: post #15
Solvency wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok I'll bite, why stop at software?

If someone invents something truly novel I think they deserve the first right to make money off it. The extra bonus of having them file a patent is that when it expires it becomes free public knowledge for everyone. The problem for software is that the duration of the patent is way too long for the pace of innovation in the world of software, to the point that a reasonable duration patent probably wouldn't even be wo…

What would be an example? Like you invent a new compression algorithm and nobody else should be able to use it for a year or two?

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#45

Post by lukan »

duped wrote: post #31

There needs to be a "use it or lose it" doctrine/law around technological IP. I get all the arguments around creating a market for the patent rights, but it just leads to these bottom feeders creating no value and increasing costs for the industry and consumers.

There are research companies who only do research and get money by licencing their patents. I mean, I really would like to live in a world without patents, but currently those companies do provide value, but cannot exist, without guarding their IP. Yet they would cease to exist, with your proposal.

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#46

Post by toomuchtodo »

hsuduebc2 wrote: post #39
fuhrtf wrote: post #34

Cloudflare is like Google early days. They could spend resources on things for the good of the all. In this case they’re spending millions when they could have settled for much cheaper. Thanks Cloudflare.

Hope they wouldn't end like google. But you are right. Thank you Cloudflare.

May their future noble side quests be successful.

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#47

Post by dosethree »

duped wrote: post #31

There needs to be a "use it or lose it" doctrine/law around technological IP. I get all the arguments around creating a market for the patent rights, but it just leads to these bottom feeders creating no value and increasing costs for the industry and consumers.

just abolish the patent system entirely. at minimum, for software

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#49

Post by anonymouskimmer »

lukan wrote: post #45
duped wrote: post #31

There needs to be a "use it or lose it" doctrine/law around technological IP. I get all the arguments around creating a market for the patent rights, but it just leads to these bottom feeders creating no value and increasing costs for the industry and consumers.

There are research companies who only do research and get money by licencing their patents. I mean, I really would like to live in a world without patents, but currently those companies do provide value, but cannot exist, without guarding their IP. Yet they would cease to exist, with your proposal.

Great point. And then if one of those companies sold a patent that wasn't immediately licensable to an IP firm for an immediate infusion of funds should the IP firm be considered a patent troll?

Re: Cloudflare defeats patent troll Sable at trial

#50

Post by kiba »

fargle wrote: post #38
djbusby wrote: post #7

Lots of patent hate in the first few comments. If we take the position that an inventor should be able to try and get profit from their invention how can we protect that without patent system?

patents were intended to protect the little-guy, the inventor (meaning a person), with an artificial monopoly so he could make money. they weren't intended to be used by huge companies to help further their already impressive monopolistic empires. they collect them and use them as a kind of insurance or mutual-assued-destruction policy. microsoft won't sue ibm (and so on) because both have such a vast portfolio of ga…

patents were intended to protect the little-guy, the inventor (meaning a person), with an artificial monopoly so he could make money.

Did that actually broadly happened over the history of patents? It sounds intuitive enough that patent protect the little guys, it's another if it actually happened for any period of time.

I remember reading that the Wright brothers spending time and money suing other inventors and pioneers over their patents. Ultimately, they weren't very successful at building a business and fell behind. That capital spent on a lawyer could be spent on their business or improving their machines.

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