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Don't mess with Newegg

blog.newegg.com

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Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#71

Post by xtrumanx »

lotharbot wrote: post #68
joshjdr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understood, and totally redacted now. Look, I was just trying to present some truth, at least my truth. I tried to anonymize, but I understand the audience here is pretty sophisticated.. If anyone wants to advise on how to share this better please advise. I'm not trying to hate, just share some facts. I was surprised the seemingly fanboy level reaction to Newegg here. I did a fair amount of business with them previou…

> "I was just trying to present some truth" Here on HN, we don't want mere truth. We also optimize for interesting and directly relevant comments. "Newegg egregiously screwed up a return for me" may be true, but how exactly is it interesting or relevant in a discussion about their response to patent trolls?

> ...but how exactly is it interesting or relevant in a discussion about their response to patent trolls?

Another comment on this thread simply states "Newegg is my hero!". How come you're not lecturing that commentator?

I found joshjdr's comment relevant. From my years on Hacker News, I've never had the impression that every comment was directly relevant to the posted link.

Most of the time someone leaves a comments that off-topic like joshjdr. Many people respond and sometimes a giant thread emerges. Those uninterested simply move on.

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#72

Post by oldmanjay »

joshjdr wrote: post #70
lotharbot wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I was just trying to present some truth" Here on HN, we don't want mere truth. We also optimize for interesting and directly relevant comments. "Newegg egregiously screwed up a return for me" may be true, but how exactly is it interesting or relevant in a discussion about their response to patent trolls?

The response here has been a surge of "I'd do more business with Newegg because of this." I stated my point. I agree with this point of the article, but I wouldn't do business with these guys. For the record, the letter previously published outlined exactly what happened. They shipped me an item that came out of the box broken. When I wrote to them they responded acknowledging, and issued an RMA. When they received t…

I think you're missing the point. off topic ranting about why you don't like newegg is why you're being voted down. it has no relevance to the topic no matter how important it feels to you.

I say this having no particular allegiance to newegg. I'm simply pointing out something you don't seem to understand.

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#73

Post by lotharbot »

joshjdr wrote: post #70
lotharbot wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I was just trying to present some truth" Here on HN, we don't want mere truth. We also optimize for interesting and directly relevant comments. "Newegg egregiously screwed up a return for me" may be true, but how exactly is it interesting or relevant in a discussion about their response to patent trolls?

The response here has been a surge of "I'd do more business with Newegg because of this." I stated my point. I agree with this point of the article, but I wouldn't do business with these guys. For the record, the letter previously published outlined exactly what happened. They shipped me an item that came out of the box broken. When I wrote to them they responded acknowledging, and issued an RMA. When they received t…

> "I am surprised I am losing karma for this. For what? An opposing view?"

As I said above, here on HN, mere truth is not enough to make us consider a comment to be a positive contribution. We select for interesting and directly relevant comments. Your comment is honest, but doesn't particularly add value to the discussion; you might consider it relevant, but I find it tangential and uninteresting.

Downvotes are the HN community's way of signaling that this is not the sort of comment we'd like you to make on this story.

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#74

Post by calbear81 »

mst wrote: post #51
suprgeek wrote: post #11

Awesome Principled Stand by Newegg! This is one of the reasons to support buying from them. However this only underscores how easy it is to sue over flimsy patents and how expensive and time-consuming it is to go after and shut down these horrible trolls. Add to this the fact that Patent reform was killed in the Senate by Pat Leahy & Harry Reid (Both of whom are notorious supporters of trial lawyers & pharma) and it…

What fascinates me is how easy it is to fight if you practice. Lee Cheng is impressive, but I suspect his secret weapon is actually having fought a bunch of such cases knowing he has a 'fuck them, they are going to lose' mandate. An enemy who's very practiced at -not- settling is probably not something his opponents know how to deal with.

Newegg has always been against paying out even way back in the day when I worked there. In the early days of patent trolling, someone sued us in a printer-related lawsuit and they offered to settle for a small sum (VERY small). Basically, the in-house lawyer said that it would cost more money to fight it given his hourly wage but that the CEO was not going to pay if it was a frivolous lawsuit. I see that the same principle has persisted now, a decade later.

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#76

Post by Chronic26 »

saturdayplace wrote: post #56
jerrytsai wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1

Instead of posting a comment like this, it's generally better just to upvote the comment you're agreeing with. The mods are trying to optimize the signal:noise, and there's not much signal in a two-character comment.

Downvote

Look at how funny I am.

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#77

Post by tempestn »

bsder wrote: post #21
mixmax wrote: post #14

It seems to me that the legal system in the US is largely broken, and that just about anyone can be sued if only you find the right grounds. Being sued and defending yourself is enormously expensive which is what patent trolls exploit. Why not use this offensively against patent trolls? Find all sorts of ways to take them to court, the American legal seems to have plenty of opportunities in that regard. There are som…

And the troll companies are always shell companies with nothing but the patents. So, even if you win, the shell company will declare bankruptcy. This is what changed the game. Before, two big companies generally had enough patents that they would simply agree to cross license because they both infringed one another's patents. So, for the company being sued, it's a no win situation.

The fact that these shell companies don't actually do anything besides sue people is also a problem. It's difficult to find grounds to sue a business that doesn't have any business activities. (Except countersuits as in Newegg's case, so good on them.)

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#78

Post by jebblue »

bsder wrote: post #21
mixmax wrote: post #14

It seems to me that the legal system in the US is largely broken, and that just about anyone can be sued if only you find the right grounds. Being sued and defending yourself is enormously expensive which is what patent trolls exploit. Why not use this offensively against patent trolls? Find all sorts of ways to take them to court, the American legal seems to have plenty of opportunities in that regard. There are som…

And the troll companies are always shell companies with nothing but the patents. So, even if you win, the shell company will declare bankruptcy. This is what changed the game. Before, two big companies generally had enough patents that they would simply agree to cross license because they both infringed one another's patents. So, for the company being sued, it's a no win situation.

>> And the troll companies are always shell companies with nothing but the patents. So, even if you win, the shell company will declare bankruptcy.

I think you've hit on it. Anyone who proclaims patents are bad overall are not considering that the real problem is the shell companies, "patent trolls", who are taking advantage of a system that was intended to encourage good faith between businesses; these shell companies are the real problem. The law needs to go after them with the "pierce the corporate veil" mantra.

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#79

Post by tempestn »

finkin1 wrote: post #34

As the CEO of a small 5-person startup, getting sued by a patent troll scares the shit out of me. Seeing Newegg take it to these asshats puts a grin on my face. I'll be voting with my dollars by shopping at Newegg.

Not that I blame them for it at all, but I'm sure the potential for thisresponse isn't overlooked by Newegg when they decide to fight these suits. That said, good on them. Far better to spend money building their brand by fighting back against patent trolls than on run of the mill advertising. (And in the best case scenario, like this one, fighting might not even cost them at all.)

Re: Don't mess with Newegg

#80

Post by danieltillett »

wtallis wrote: post #65
danieltillett wrote: post #55

Does anyone know why these cases are so expensive to defend? They can't be that complex given the troll basically has nothing. Could you not just hire a junior lawyer out college for next to nothing and put them in charge of running all the defences?

They're expensive because the eastern Texas courts are so favorable to patent plaintiffs that in order to have a meaningful chance for a win you have to either get the USPTO to throw out the patent or get the case moved to a different court (as Newegg did here). The former is extremely time-consuming and expensive, and the latter is difficult and rarely successful. A direct fight against the subject and claims is all…

Why is it more expensive to run a case in East Texas with some junior lawyer than anywhere else?
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