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How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

arstechnica.com

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Re: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

#21

Post by jivatmanx »

taf2 wrote: post #10
arbuge wrote: post #9

Comparing patent trolls to bacteria would be an unforgivable and entirely unwarranted insult to bacteria everywhere. Even the plague bacterium deserves better. We need to see alot more of this happening - hopefully this will show people there is another way to go, i.e. never ever settle with a patent troll, no matter how scary the alternative may seem to be. 3 patents invalidated but thousands to go. It is disgusting…

I think you might be going a little far and taking this a little far... considering the black plague killed between 75 - 200 million people e.g. 30-60% of the population in europe... I agree patients are bad, but let's not take things out of perspective ... ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

True, but it also brought about demographic changes that finally destroyed feudalism in Western Europe.

Re: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

#22

Post by DavidAdams »

lukejduncan wrote: post #6

> That was OpenMarket, a software company that originally created these patents before going out of business in 2001. Whenever exec's talk about needing to file patents for "self defense" I always think of cases like this. I don't know anything about OpenMarket, but I'm guessing they had similar logic. Then they go belly-up and these toxic patents make their way into a trolls portfolio. No matter the company, IMHO, i…

I actually worked for Open Market briefly back in 1998. Don't blame me, though. Open Market acquired my company, ShopSite, but they were already on a downward trajectory by that time, and I left to start another company before the year was out.

But I can report that the company was quite proud of its shopping cart patent, and its patent portfolio in general, largely because they felt that it protected them and established them as a major player in the nascent but growing e-commerce market. There was a sense, though, even then, that the patent was pure bullshit. I never heard any contemplation of using the patent offensively, and from what I can recall there was a feeling that if that were to happen, the same thing would happen to Open Market that happened to this patent troll. That is to say, that it wouldn't stand up.

Indeed, this is a good cautionary tale as to the havoc that "defensive" patents can wreak once they get into the hands of trolls.

Re: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

#24

Post by noonespecial »

lukejduncan wrote: post #6

> That was OpenMarket, a software company that originally created these patents before going out of business in 2001. Whenever exec's talk about needing to file patents for "self defense" I always think of cases like this. I don't know anything about OpenMarket, but I'm guessing they had similar logic. Then they go belly-up and these toxic patents make their way into a trolls portfolio. No matter the company, IMHO, i…

Patents are like the toxic waste of innovation. When they are created everyone is sure they will be kept contained but people move on, businesses close, and they end up getting dumped into the ecosystem where they poison everything.

Re: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

#25

Post by shmerl »

DanBC wrote: post #16

Surprising that so many companies paid so much money before NewEgg found and used the Compuserve prior art. And it's a shame there isn't much cooperation between people attacked by patent trolls. It feels like there could be benefits of scale if you have 5 firms cooperating against a troll.

Yeah, a very obvious idea comes to mind - all affected by the same patent troll should pool resources to support at least one steadfast fighter in order to bust the troll, instead of spreading resources thin.

Re: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

#27

Post by rudyfink »

pg wrote: post #23

These were Open Market's patents? OM tried to get us to license one of them in about 1997. They didn't try very hard though. I told the OM guy who called me that I thought the patent was invalid, and he said "ok" and then asked if we were hiring.

Yes, Soverain's patents were originally from OM. I think the path was roughly something like this: OM->Divine Interventures->(holding entities)->Soverain.

'492 assignment history: http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=pat&pat=59...

'314 assignment history: http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=pat&pat=57...

Soverain patents by assignment: http://assignments.uspto.gov/assignments/q?db=pat&qt=asn...

Re: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

#29

Post by Whitespace »

It seems that almost all patent troll cases are tried in the East District of Texas because that district had strongly favored plaintiffs. I'm then curious: if a US company refused to do business with Texas citizens -- citing an inhospitable litigation environment or some such -- could they still be brought to court in EDTX?

Continuing the thought experiment, what if companies continued to do business but added a surcharge to products shipped to troll-favorable districts? It seems that the jurors in those areas would be more intimately aware of patent trolls if they had to pay a 1% extra fee when they ordered Avon products.

I'm sure some companies do such a thing and just bundle it up with the cost of the product itself, but I'm curious if any companies took a more forceful stance.

Re: How Newegg crushed the “shopping cart” patent and saved online retail

#30

Post by tunesmith »

lukejduncan wrote: post #6

> That was OpenMarket, a software company that originally created these patents before going out of business in 2001. Whenever exec's talk about needing to file patents for "self defense" I always think of cases like this. I don't know anything about OpenMarket, but I'm guessing they had similar logic. Then they go belly-up and these toxic patents make their way into a trolls portfolio. No matter the company, IMHO, i…

Dumb question - wouldn't those patents have expired by now anyway? ... Oops, sorry, I thought it was 10 years. It's 20.
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