Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 51 posts

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#11

Post by JoshTriplett »

vaksel wrote: post #8
rudyfink wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I think being a juror in a patent trial is a hard proposition anywhere. Why do I say that: -The subject matter is likely to be mostly to totally outside of a person's technical depth and factual experience. (Here I try and think if someone asked me to decide some question related to something like advanced particle physics, chemistry, or the tax code). -There is not that much time to figure out what is goin…

agreed, it doesn't seem like it should be a jury trial, but instead should be just a hearing in front of matter experts. What does joe schmoe know about the nuances around patent law? There is a reason there are lawyers who specialize their entire practice just around patent law.

Too much room for bias. Remember, "experts" doesn't just mean people who know to apply heavy skepticism to ignore frivolous patents; it also includes people who wholeheartedly support patents and believe most of them have merit.

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#12

Post by vaksel »

rudyfink wrote: post #10
vaksel wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agreed, it doesn't seem like it should be a jury trial, but instead should be just a hearing in front of matter experts. What does joe schmoe know about the nuances around patent law? There is a reason there are lawyers who specialize their entire practice just around patent law.

Experts are employed in most (probably closer to all) patent trials, but they tend to have an offsetting effect (or at least that is the opinion). I think a system of appointed masters has its issues too. Theoretically, that is the PTOs role right? The closest idea I've been able to think of is a modification to the jury system so that the base pool that jurors are randomly selected from consists of people with exper…

right now it's more of a case of each side getting someone who'll come out and say they agree with them.

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#13

Post by [deleted] »

rudyfink wrote: post #10
vaksel wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

agreed, it doesn't seem like it should be a jury trial, but instead should be just a hearing in front of matter experts. What does joe schmoe know about the nuances around patent law? There is a reason there are lawyers who specialize their entire practice just around patent law.

Experts are employed in most (probably closer to all) patent trials, but they tend to have an offsetting effect (or at least that is the opinion). I think a system of appointed masters has its issues too. Theoretically, that is the PTOs role right? The closest idea I've been able to think of is a modification to the jury system so that the base pool that jurors are randomly selected from consists of people with exper…

[deleted]

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#14

Post by redthrowaway »

koenigdavidmj wrote: post #7
dhimes wrote: post #4

Thank God. I didn't realize UCal had a stake in this. WTF? Don't they know better?

That would strike me as worthy of a black mark by the industry---a statement that we will not hire your students if you back this stuff.

That would be an overreach, and unfairly punish some eminently-qualified grads from Berkeley and the like. I would, however, like to see some of the big boys boycott a career fair, or simply set up a stand with no attendant and a poster reading, "UC Berkeley tried to blackmail us and hold the web hostage. In response, we will not be attending this career fair." Then let the students put pressure on the administration to perform a cranio-anal extraction.

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#15

Post by rudyfink »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #9
rudyfink wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I think being a juror in a patent trial is a hard proposition anywhere. Why do I say that: -The subject matter is likely to be mostly to totally outside of a person's technical depth and factual experience. (Here I try and think if someone asked me to decide some question related to something like advanced particle physics, chemistry, or the tax code). -There is not that much time to figure out what is goin…

> -The subject matter is likely to be mostly to totally outside of a person's technical depth and factual experience. (Here I try and think if someone asked me to decide some question related to something like advanced particle physics, chemistry, or the tax code). Not just "likely"; anyone who had such experience would get kicked off the jury. Nobody on Hacker News will ever get to serve as a juror on a patent trial…

I think it's worth noting that as a nation we have chosen to be "biased" in favor of patents. A patent is presumptively valid. To find a patent invalid a jury's standard is "clear and convincing evidence." By contrast the standard for infringement is "a preponderance of the evidence."

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#17

Post by impendia »

koenigdavidmj wrote: post #7
dhimes wrote: post #4

Thank God. I didn't realize UCal had a stake in this. WTF? Don't they know better?

That would strike me as worthy of a black mark by the industry---a statement that we will not hire your students if you back this stuff.

Find the right people in Cal's middle management, cold call them, and complain to them.

Also, find out who has donated large amounts of money, cold call them too, and complain to them also.

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#18

Post by tzs »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #2

You know a patent claim has no merit when even an East Texas court won't accept it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_f...

EDT has been more favorable to defendants than plaintiffs for quite a while. It isn't even in the top 5 for plaintiff win rates.

The numbers claimed in that Wikipedia article are wildly off. Here is a much better researched source: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1597919

Re: Texas Jury Strikes Down Patent Trolls’ Claim To Own the Interactive Web

#20

Post by monochromatic »

sukuriant wrote: post #5

Maybe they're seeing so many patents they're starting to realize how many of those patents are just ... stupid? When you're exposed to a field more (lots of cases kinda do that), you start to think more like a person in that field and suddenly previously non-obvious things are obvious!

Who, the jurors? It's unlikely any juror on this case has been a juror before in a patent case.
Post reply on HN