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The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

letterspatent.org

21–30 of 281 posts

Re: The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

#21
post #13

Every so often a patent troll story comes up on HN, and people like me bitch about how broken the system is and get group therapy from shouting into the wind on a web forum. What can we actually do . How do we start fixing this problem?

I've wondered that too. How can we realistically boycott the companies that abuse patents? I suppose I could stop using Apple products, but most current software jobs require some form of smartphone for authentication, so I need an iPhone or Android phone, thus supporting Google or Samsung or LG or one of the other big megacorps that abuse the American patent system. I feel like the only thing that could conceivably…

The megacorps are forced to file many patents for defensive purposes, either for protection against each other or the NPEs. Technical bulletins, disclosures, and scientific publications showing the obviousness of ridiculous NPE patents just don't seem to be enough. The juries must be receiving bad info on what to do.

Re: The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

#22
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-05-25/the-te...

An entire industry has sprung up in Texas specifically around the extortion of actual technology companies -- which almost always exist in other states -- and it has been profoundly corrupting.

https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2015-2016/u-s-dis...

Re: The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

#23
post #6

The patent system, at least in the US, is broken and supports many actions, like patent trolling, that only benefit such vermin. Rather than trying to make life harder for such trolls we should focus on fixing the patent system. My 2c.

"Rather?" Like, we've collectively got half an hour for lunch and we can either go get a sandwich or pick up our dry cleaning?

Re: The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

#24
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think carefully about who you vote for. Get involved in the process- like anything unless you actually really care and have the means or can turn it into your means most likely you will move onto something else...

The problem is I'm pretty sure this needs to be fixed at the national legislative level. There are somewhere between few and no electable congressional candidates who actually care enough about patents to stand up to lobbying. And there are very few people outside the microcosm of the tech community who care enough about patent reform to prioritize it above other mainstream issues. So what's the practical game plan t…

You tie it to something strategic, even if it the relationship is loose.

We have a chip shortage right? And an American manufacturing crisis, right?

"We need to eliminate trolling waste and abuse for national security. In Asia they don't have this dysfunction and we're ceding ground to adversaries simply to make lawyering trolls rich!"

Re: The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

#26
post #16

Every so often a patent troll story comes up on HN, and people like me bitch about how broken the system is and get group therapy from shouting into the wind on a web forum. What can we actually do . How do we start fixing this problem?

Watch The Patent Scam, by the X-Plane's (flight simulator) founder Austin Meyer. https://www.thepatentscam.com/

I always find "watch this documentary" to be pointless. If the person's already convinced that patent abuse is bad, they don't need to watch a 2 hour video to reconfirm their beliefs. If the person is sitting on the fence or not convinced, there are better ways to provide information to them than getting them to stare at a screen for 2 hours.

Re: The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

#27

Every so often a patent troll story comes up on HN, and people like me bitch about how broken the system is and get group therapy from shouting into the wind on a web forum. What can we actually do . How do we start fixing this problem?

Like most major structural issues, nothing.

Re: The patent troll that won a $308M jury trial against Apple

#30

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-05-25/the-te... An entire industry has sprung up in Texas specifically around the extortion of actual technology companies -- which almost always exist in other states -- and it has been profoundly corrupting. https://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2015-2016/u-s-dis...

This May 2017 SC ruling should have fixed a lot of that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TC_Heartland_LLC_v._Kraft_Food...

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