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Seems like a brilliant solution to this problem Stick it to them! Good work.
The law students worked on this for months for free and the paten troll got away without any fee. I don't see what's so brilliant about it. Looks like shity system to me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Small entities filing lawsuits is good because it means small entities are using patents. Large entities filing lawsuits is good because it means large entities are using patents. The underlying assumption is that patent litigation is a good thing for the plaintiffs involved. It's like trying to use the number of patents issued to measure the innovation attributable to patents. Litigation isn't a sign of success, it'…
Strawman. Those statistics were to refute grandparents assumptions about how patents are used in the real world, not to assert that litigation is a "success". Litigation is a failure, but a failure of negotiation, not of the system. On mobile, so can't find the Lemley study now, but something like 1% of issued patents are ever litigated, and a big fraction of even those settle out of court. The large majority are typ…
Except that they can show no such thing if by your own assertion the way they are used in the real world is primarily outside of litigation.
> Litigation is a failure, but a failure of negotiation, not of the system.
The reason negotiation fails is that the system is broken. Patents were issued that should not have been issued which makes defendants reluctant to license them but makes plaintiffs feel no less entitled to assert them.
> There's no evidence of "systemic failure" of patent litigation
This is a systemic failure:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/nov/01/smart...
That is not how the landscape looks in e.g. the pharmaceutical industry.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Strawman. Those statistics were to refute grandparents assumptions about how patents are used in the real world, not to assert that litigation is a "success". Litigation is a failure, but a failure of negotiation, not of the system. On mobile, so can't find the Lemley study now, but something like 1% of issued patents are ever litigated, and a big fraction of even those settle out of court. The large majority are typ…
> Those statistics were to refute grandparents assumptions about how patents are used in the real world, not to assert that litigation is a "success". Except that they can show no such thing if by your own assertion the way they are used in the real world is primarily outside of litigation. > Litigation is a failure, but a failure of negotiation, not of the system. The reason negotiation fails is that the system is b…
Also, when litigation does occur, small companies are initiating it significantly often. This sheds little light on how small companies use patents outside litigation -- there are surveys showing startups in different industries use patents differently -- but it certainly shows that the small guy vs big guy scenario is much more common than grandparent assumed.
There is no evidence at all that the vast majority of regular, non-litigation activity is problematic. The only major complaint was trolls, but when the GAO investigated the problem they put out a report that essentially said, "meh". Admittedly the requisite data about mass-mailed demand letters is not available, but there is legislation in the works on that front.
> That is not how the landscape looks in e.g. the pharmaceutical industry.
Just because somebody doesn't make a pithy infographic about it does not mean it doesn't happen: http://www.fiercepharma.com/tags/patent-lawsuits
Note that this link only lists articles from 2008. If you google a bit with a custom time range, you'll find tons more patent lawsuit articles from before 2008 too. The reasons you don't hear about it is because any combination of:
a) it's been this way forever, so whenever a new drug suit happens it's just the usual;
b) pharma lawsuits don't generate rageviews which end up posted on HN; and
c) you probably are not in the pharma industry.
Just parroting the "patent system is broken" line the media puts out does not make it so.