Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
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Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#2It is awesome to see a company put their money where their mouth is, the good will with the dev community they are building with this will easily exceed the costs of fighting a troll in court.
Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#3Can anyone explain if it's possible for this patents to just go from one company to another? Like what's is stopping IP Nav and Parallel Iron from just creating a new corporation and transferring their IP if Rackspace succeeds in this lawsuit?
Seems like they can just start shell companies in order to avoid being counter-sued.
Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#4> In actuality, it is a bit more complicated. Our dealings with this particular troll reach back to December 2010 when IP Navigation Group (IP Nav), as agent for a supposedly secret patent owner, now known as Parallel Iron, accused Rackspace of patent infringement. IP Nav told us that they could not divulge the details of their infringement claims – not even the patent numbers or the patent owner – unless we entered into a “forbearance agreement” – basically, an agreement that we would not sue them. IP Nav was worried that as soon as we found out what their patents and claims actually were, Rackspace would sue to invalidate their patents or for a declaration that Rackspace does not infringe. We were unwilling to enter into such a one-sided agreement, so we negotiated a mutual forbearance agreement that required either party to give 30 days’ notice before bringing suit.
That's some shady shit right there.
Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#5It would be awesome to see this trend continue; I wouldn't mind seeing big companies suing patent trolls for every possible misstep available.
Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#6Interesting, patent trolls have reached the level of public relations foil. I think its great that Rackspace is suing these guys but I found the press release made me feel like I do when somebody is trying to impress me with all of the charities they've donated money to. Mutual forbearance agreement? Seriously? Why not sue them right then and there when they foisted that bit of "strategy" on you and charged them with criminal extortion?
My reasoning is like this, either you infringe or you don't. So the patent holder can say "We believe you infringe claims x, y, and z on patents q, r, and s." Or they can't. So if someone tells you infringe but they won't tell you the patent or the claims, and they are threatening to sue anyway, that is a protection racket and actionable under the RICO statutes as far as I can tell.
Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#7Can anyone explain if it's possible for this patents to just go from one company to another? Like what's is stopping IP Nav and Parallel Iron from just creating a new corporation and transferring their IP if Rackspace succeeds in this lawsuit? Seems like they can just start shell companies in order to avoid being counter-sued.
Not exactly sure what you're going for, but you sue based on facts as they were at a particular point in time. Transferring a patent or doing a hide the ball move doesn't work so well in court, particularly federal court.
Res judicata is the concept that once a party in a suit has facts determined of a particular situation in one court, that party can't then go into another court and argue the opposite.
Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#8It is awesome to see a company put their money where their mouth is, the good will with the dev community they are building with this will easily exceed the costs of fighting a troll in court.
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Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#9Can anyone explain if it's possible for this patents to just go from one company to another? Like what's is stopping IP Nav and Parallel Iron from just creating a new corporation and transferring their IP if Rackspace succeeds in this lawsuit? Seems like they can just start shell companies in order to avoid being counter-sued.
Courts may seem antiquated but a reasonable judge will see right through these games.
Re: Why Rackspace Is Suing The Most Notorious Patent Troll In America
#10Interesting, patent trolls have reached the level of public relations foil. I think its great that Rackspace is suing these guys but I found the press release made me feel like I do when somebody is trying to impress me with all of the charities they've donated money to. Mutual forbearance agreement? Seriously? Why not sue them right then and there when they foisted that bit of "strategy" on you and charged them with…
Why not sue them right then and there when they foisted that bit of "strategy" on you and charged them with criminal extortion?
Presumably because if given a choice, Rackspace would rather spend its time and energy on hosting servers than in court.