Life for a startup on the receiving end of a patent law suit

Post by rfctr » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 3:19 AM UTC

WildUtah wrote: post #77

rfctr wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung was in South Korea. Apple blocked Samsung's sales in US based on patent issues. It doesn't matter where you're located. What matters where you want to do business.

What matters where you want to do business. Only if you're a hardware startup. If you're doing software as a service and you can deal with latency issues, you can operate many places where US patent law doesn't apply to you or to your customers. Canada and Mexico have high speed connections to the USA and Germany or Korea aren't so slow either.

Post by rfctr » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 3:30 AM UTC

cpursley wrote: post #46

lccarrasco wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat unrelated, but what other countries have you considered? I wanted to open a US LLC to sell Android/iOS apps (my country is limited to free apps) but given that I can't open a US Bank Account (at this point) I've been looking for other options.

Look into a Nevis LLC or IBC. Pretty cheap to start ($2k USD) modeled after US Delaware LLC and they have a stable British based law system. Anybody who wants to sue you must post a $25k USD bond to the Nevis government before even proceeding. And this doesn't include the money they'd have to spend to fly down, hire a local attorney and then sue your company. http://www.nestmann.com/nevis-llcs/ Edit: I see you're fro…

Post by WildUtah » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 4:01 AM UTC

rfctr wrote: post #81

WildUtah wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What matters where you want to do business. Only if you're a hardware startup. If you're doing software as a service and you can deal with latency issues, you can operate many places where US patent law doesn't apply to you or to your customers. Canada and Mexico have high speed connections to the USA and Germany or Korea aren't so slow either.

SaaS are not immune too. Example: http://www.ca.com/ca/en/news/Press-Releases/na/2013/CA-Techn... "... seeking ... an injunction against AppDynamics prohibiting the infringement of CA Technologies patents" In case CA wins, the court will prohibit AppDynamics to sell any product that violate CA's patents. Yes, one may host the company in Canada. How to sell to US customers though? VISA, MC and AMEX all have US presenc…

Post by studentrob » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 4:06 AM UTC

rfctr wrote: post #82

studentrob wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blocking business seems like an unusual step, or at least we rarely hear about it in the news. Is there any precedent for a patent case successfully blocking a business whose service is all on a website? If so, what happened? Did they simply take over the domain? What if a business used a foreign owned domain? I feel like there are options here that may not have been tried. Presumably a patent troll could try to tell…

Wikileaks blockade is a good example of the power that can be used when parties fail to come to an agreement. Most companies though prefer to settle out of court because the court is quite a gambling, that's why we do not hear it more often.

Post by thinkcomp » Sat, Jul 20, 2013, 5:49 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #80

thinkcomp wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clients are not all sophisticated, just like consumers are not all rational. Much (most) of legal work is indeed paralegal work. That's my point. The legal industry has been adopting some computer technology as it becomes available. The courts have barely changed since the 1700s.

The idea that Fortune 1000 companies or startups funded and guided by well-connected VC firms are unsophisticated consumers that are unwittingly paying $500+/hour for paralegal work is laughable.