It's totally excellent that Newegg is doing this. As a side note, I don't like when people include silly infographics in articles like this. I think it sort of cheapens the message and this particular message is important.
Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
81–90 of 154 posts
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#82Why would any of these trolls take on newegg?
They have lots of money so they figured they'd get more money out of a quick settlment. They miscalculated of course on Newegg settling.
>more money out of a quick settlment
I get why they'd go after anyone but NewEgg for that reason, but EVERYONE in their business should know NewEgg doesn't settle by now.
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Alice[1] opinion moved US law closer to what you are looking for, rejecting patents that are simply ideas "by means of a computer." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Corp._v._CLS_Bank_Int%27...
It's worth noting that the Supreme Court has generally given rulings that suggest that intimate that software patents are broadly unpatentable. The key decision that allowed software patents in the first place was State St., which was never heard by the Supreme Court (indeed, in Bilski, every opinion went out of their way to emphasize just how wrong State St. was). Between Bilski, Alice, and even the older decisions…
> One way you could fix the system is to punish the trolls for knowingly peddling invalid patents...
Most "patent trolls" spin off separate legal entities for each patent they're using. This is to minimize losses if a suit goes wrong and they end up having to pay legal fees. So, trying to punish trolls would be extraordinarily difficult; you'd have to figure out some way to explicitly link all of these entities, which is something the trolls are already specifically trying to prevent.
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having litigated against adversaries who use the courts primarily to be a nuisance, with little or no regard to the actual strength or weakness of their claims, I've become convinced "loser pays costs and attorney's fees of prevailing party" is a better system than what we have in the U.S.
This is not the only difference between the justice systems in US and EU (EU is what I consider to be elswhere): in US the case is the battle between boths sides lawyer, and the judge is simply a watching function, that a the end calls the sentence, based on the outcome of that battle. In EU, the case is a so called 'process of finding material truth' and the judge can take active stance, call witnesses, ask addition…
The US system is also supposed to be a process of truth-finding, just that we leave the parties to support their own positions as adversaries. Without advocacy, American courts do very little on their own. So far that doesn't bother me, but I'm a lawyer. For someone thrown into the system, there can be an incorrect expectation that the court will automatically act to do justice.
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
The legal system is not equally available to all entities. That it is the center of how we enforce our rights and hold others to their duties is a major problem. Even if we could fix it in the case of patents, we still have major issues within other civil and criminal courts. I do not know the solution or even have any half baked ideas on it, but I do think the first step to any solution is for us, as a society, to r…
There are other countries, where this issue is solved (more or less) by the fact that the side which have lost the case is covering trial costs. This does stop 'court trolling' because even is the cost of winning the case is higher than the cost of the settlement, winning the case nullifies that cost. But hey, US is special this way! (and many others... ;)
I would also suggest not having punitive damages. Removes the prospect of / threat of a big payday coming out of a lawsuit.
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#86This brings up a good point. I need to buy from the vendor that's doing some good with my money. Sometimes I hesitate to buy from Newegg because I can always find the parts cheaper (Hey! Rent's a killer on the West coast right now!) I think I'll buy PC parts solely from them for as long as they fight the patent trolls.
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are other countries, where this issue is solved (more or less) by the fact that the side which have lost the case is covering trial costs. This does stop 'court trolling' because even is the cost of winning the case is higher than the cost of the settlement, winning the case nullifies that cost. But hey, US is special this way! (and many others... ;)
Having litigated against adversaries who use the courts primarily to be a nuisance, with little or no regard to the actual strength or weakness of their claims, I've become convinced "loser pays costs and attorney's fees of prevailing party" is a better system than what we have in the U.S.
I was under the impression that frivolous law suits were subject to rulings that would aware attorney fees to the defense. Is that not the case?
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#88You don't really win until the legal atmosphere is such that the the key personalities behind a patent troll operation get 10 years in jail.
Do you seriously want to live in such an atmosphere? Do you really think that if that situation ever came to be then it would be the only change occurring in society?
Patent trolls may suck, but IP is a thing we're not going to get rid of. As long as it's "property" it can be traded. As long as it can be traded, the possibility that the current owner has desires at odds with the original owner can arise.
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
The legal system is not equally available to all entities. That it is the center of how we enforce our rights and hold others to their duties is a major problem. Even if we could fix it in the case of patents, we still have major issues within other civil and criminal courts. I do not know the solution or even have any half baked ideas on it, but I do think the first step to any solution is for us, as a society, to r…
There are other countries, where this issue is solved (more or less) by the fact that the side which have lost the case is covering trial costs. This does stop 'court trolling' because even is the cost of winning the case is higher than the cost of the settlement, winning the case nullifies that cost. But hey, US is special this way! (and many others... ;)
But even then you propbably will get reimbursed only what an average lawyer would have been costing you. Not what the specialized high profile Lawyer normaly asks for.
Re: Newegg vs. Patent Trolls: When We Win, You Win
#90I really appreciate Newegg's approach here -- one of the main reasons that patent trolling is so successful is that the cost of settling is smaller even than the cost of winning a suit. Newegg is performing an (expensive) community service. How should I be supporting them (other than making them my "first place to check" for electronics shopping)?
> one of the main reasons that patent trolling is so successful is that the cost of settling is smaller even than the cost of winning a suit. Is the underlying reason for this strategy the low costs of settlement, or the extremely high costs of lawsuits? What if the value of a patent really is only a few thousand dollars? Note that this very tactic is used by big companies to avoid licensing valid and useful patents…
Is the underlying reason for this strategy the low costs of settlement, or the extremely high costs of lawsuits?
Lawyers are expensive. Good lawyers are extremely expensive. There are also experts, investigators and consultants to hire. Everything about the process is expensive. It's very good that newegg is doing this because it helps everyone.