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Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

arstechnica.com

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Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#21

Post by grej »

ScottBurson wrote: post #15
grej wrote: post #6

The patent system has been out of hand for a while but the big corporations haven't complained too much about it because having huge patent portfolios themselves allowed them to build a virtual moat around their business units. If things go nuclear and they start hemorrhaging even more legal fees, they may begin to exert more pressure to change the system. Given some of the recent proposed legislation, hopefully the…

I don't think any of the recent proposed legislation is intended to address a situation like this, where all the players are large companies with deep pockets.

Good point. Although this particular case highlights one of the key problems in the entire system. Shell corporations with very little assets are established as the suing entity in order to shield the much larger and wealthier owners from any counter-suit liability. If that aspect of the current system were changed and you could pierce the shell corp to get at the real beneficiaries, it would alter the landscape for these cases significantly.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#22

Post by alwaysinshade »

cromwellian wrote: post #4

I thought it was impossible to be more of a douchebag than Intellectual Ventures, but apparently, there's a new winner in town. It was obvious when the Rockstar bid won and you looked at who made up the group, what was going to happen. I used to get really angry and outraged when reading stories like this, but now I'm just resigned. Patent reform isn't going to happen and this kind of predatory and unethical abuse of…

"I thought it was impossible to be more of a douchebag than Intellectual Ventures, but apparently, there's a new winner in town."

What Rockstar is doing is very shitty, but IV takes the cake because they're a non-practicing entity. It's one thing to sue competitors for making products similar to your own, it's another to make no products and sue people who dare to make something vaguely encroaching your vaguely defined patent.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#23

Post by unimpressive »

leeoniya wrote: post #8

i know this will get downvoted, and i've avoided doing this until now, but it's just too appropriate here http://images.wikia.com/random-ness/images/3/34/Michael_Jack...

If you must post a gif, you could at least add to the conversation first.

And no, predicting your karma decrease doesn't count.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#26

Post by [deleted] »

unimpressive wrote: post #23
leeoniya wrote: post #8

i know this will get downvoted, and i've avoided doing this until now, but it's just too appropriate here http://images.wikia.com/random-ness/images/3/34/Michael_Jack...

If you must post a gif, you could at least add to the conversation first. And no, predicting your karma decrease doesn't count.

[deleted]

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#28

Post by ekianjo »

bpodgursky wrote: post #18

I know it's been said before, but to reiterate: outrage doesn't help anything, but buying products from these companies DOES hurt. If you're truly outraged enough to want to take action, take action - writing to your representatives - donating to the EFF or other organizations - by not donating another $2k to Apple for a new Mac*, implicitly endorsing these bullshit tactics - not developing for those platforms (App S…

"Don't buy Macs" is not going to work well around here. Most HNers develop software on Mac and see it as the ideal development platform. I'd say they don't care about what Apple does (it's not the first time Apple does that either).

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#29

Post by oniTony »

alwaysinshade wrote: post #22
cromwellian wrote: post #4

I thought it was impossible to be more of a douchebag than Intellectual Ventures, but apparently, there's a new winner in town. It was obvious when the Rockstar bid won and you looked at who made up the group, what was going to happen. I used to get really angry and outraged when reading stories like this, but now I'm just resigned. Patent reform isn't going to happen and this kind of predatory and unethical abuse of…

"I thought it was impossible to be more of a douchebag than Intellectual Ventures, but apparently, there's a new winner in town." What Rockstar is doing is very shitty, but IV takes the cake because they're a non-practicing entity. It's one thing to sue competitors for making products similar to your own, it's another to make no products and sue people who dare to make something vaguely encroaching your vaguely defin…

But that's exactly what Rockstar does. From the article:

> Part of the company's strategy is avoiding a patent-countersuit by not having any operating businesses. Essentially, Rockstar wants to enjoy the same advantage patent trolls have, even though it's owned by direct Google competitors like Apple and Microsoft.

Re: Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google

#30

Post by ulfw »

aspensmonster wrote: post #12

Please, make it stop. Make it stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP. How many billions of dollars are these companies going to flush down the drain on legal fees that could be better spent doing just about anything else? >When Wired visited Rockstar's Ontario headquarters, it found 10 reverse-engineering experts, working daily to take apart products and find patent infringement. >With just a few dozen employee…

It's how America runs. Have you asked a doctor how much he pays for legal fees/malpractise insurance? It's the laywers who run this place
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