> If you settle, more trolls will come knocking on your door.
The settlement agreement should include an NDA.
How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#12> If you settle, more trolls will come knocking on your door. The settlement agreement should include an NDA.
Quick offtopic: from where is the image in the article?
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#13> If you settle, more trolls will come knocking on your door. The settlement agreement should include an NDA.
Quick offtopic: from where is the image in the article?
Looks like it's from the movie Troll Hunter.
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#14I'm very surprised that nowhere in the article does the author advise someone in this position to get a lawyer. If I were being sued by a patent troll (or anyone else), the very first thing I'd do is hire competent legal counsel and let them communicate on my behalf. Not being a lawyer myself, I don't know how to figure out whether the troll's suit is frivolous or not, and I don't know whether some offhand remark I might make to their lawyer could get me in trouble. It's also possible that once the troll sees that I have a lawyer, they might just drop their suit and go after easier prey.
"He then told us we had until the end of the day to settle the case or face criminal charges for harassment. We immediately notified the FBI of his extortion attempt."
That seems to indicate that the troll's lawyer was fairly incompetent; I don't think a competent lawyer would have made such a baseless and self-incriminating threat. A competent lawyer might have been much harder to beat if he didn't have a lawyer of his own.
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#15"I’m personally willing to commit over $1 million to fight this injustice..." The other 5 steps would seem pretty irrelevant as a defendant in the absence of the above resource.
That's what I came to post. Step 6 seems to be "have a million dollars".
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#16I think a tool is necessary to allow people who are threatened with litigation, but are not yet part of a lawsuit, to find each other. So, if some lawyer contacts me and tells me that I am infringing on patent X, and I should settle before trial, it would be awesome if there was a site where I could go and register (anonymously) that I am being threatened with litigation for infringement of patent X. The site would l…
Good idea. It might also be good to track the names of the lawyers involved (and not just the names of the shell companies they're hiding behind). Most know the laws may eventually change to make patent trolling harder and that their industry may not last forever. Many probably plan on working in tech if this happens. If these lawyers knew their reputation could be sullied by working for patent trolls and that tech companies may hot hire them for this, it would provide a deterrent to working for such companies in the first place.
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#17I'm very surprised that nowhere in the article does the author advise someone in this position to get a lawyer. If I were being sued by a patent troll (or anyone else), the very first thing I'd do is hire competent legal counsel and let them communicate on my behalf. Not being a lawyer myself, I don't know how to figure out whether the troll's suit is frivolous or not, and I don't know whether some offhand remark I m…
Getting an attorney is probably excellent advice, but I don't think it hurts anything to do research on your own as well so that you can get some idea of what the patent is about and whether you might actually be legally infringing.
I probably would have at least consulted with an attorney before contacting the troll and the patent author though, just to be sure I wasn't somehow shooting myself in the foot or limiting my future options.
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#18"I’m personally willing to commit over $1 million to fight this injustice..." The other 5 steps would seem pretty irrelevant as a defendant in the absence of the above resource.
I agree its much easier to be brave when you can easily afford to lose. Nevertheless, I think this is absolutely awesome. It's like Dirty Harry going off the rails and breaking all the rules for justice. I love it! I'm glad it's not my money, but I love it.
Maybe if more companies with some extra cash would do this scumbag trolls like Eileen Shapiro would think twice.
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#19> How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
Am I missing something or they haven't actually slaughtered their troll yet?
Re: How to slaughter a patent troll in 5 steps
#20Besides generic software patents, the oddest one I've seen is being able to patent a color. Since Nike has the patent on the color "Maize", Adidas had to come up with a new color for Michigan athletics. Also, I'm not sure how prevalent it is, but there may be an opportunity for a business of being the go to firm for fighting these trolls. Like the article said, being familiar with the companies and the process makes…
I hadn't heard that one, but Yves Klein patented a color in France 50 years ago: