The art of taking down patent trolls
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The art of taking down patent trolls
1–10 of 15 posts
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#2Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#3I love this. I loved it when Newegg did it and it warms my heart that Cloudflare is doing this.
I also checked and Newegg still sells the "Don't settle: Settling feeds the trolls" shirt: https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16800996219
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#4I'm as down as the next person on organizations like Sable Networks but honestly it's like being mad at rattlesnake that bites you if you step on it. They have a sleazy nature and they're being true to it.
My real ire is towards Cisco and Juniper. They had the money to litigate the claims and decided to pay up. I cannot help but think that this was solely done to add fixed costs to any competitor.
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#5I'm as down as the next person on organizations like Sable Networks but honestly it's like being mad at rattlesnake that bites you if you step on it. They have a sleazy nature and they're being true to it. My real ire is towards Cisco and Juniper. They had the money to litigate the claims and decided to pay up. I cannot help but think that this was solely done to add fixed costs to any competitor.
Bean counters and risk management.
When you have a small risk of losing billions and a fixed, small price for settle the risk, you will decide to whatever is smaller.
No one, inside Cisco/Juniper/ whatever will ever be confronted why he chose to minimize risks. And this also applies to buying some gartner recommendation, doing business with IBM or Microsoft etc. Being on the safe side helps you have a long path in the company road.
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#6I'm as down as the next person on organizations like Sable Networks but honestly it's like being mad at rattlesnake that bites you if you step on it. They have a sleazy nature and they're being true to it. My real ire is towards Cisco and Juniper. They had the money to litigate the claims and decided to pay up. I cannot help but think that this was solely done to add fixed costs to any competitor.
Yes, Cisco and Juniper are financing an entity that creates "fixed costs" that are easier for bigger companies to bear. They can argue that it was cheaper to pay, but that's only half the picture. They help create an environment that's harder on upstarts.
Cloudflare still has some upstart culture: they get offended and lash out, which not only keeps trolls away but it's good for their brand too.
I wouldn't characterize the likes of Sable as rattlesnake though. They're parasitic. If you don't pick off leeches, more and more of them will come to suck.
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#7The main problem seems to be how expensive the litigation is, not the patent trolls themselves, the trolls are just a symptom. I wonder if we are going to see any improvements in this area.
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#8The main problem seems to be how expensive the litigation is, not the patent trolls themselves, the trolls are just a symptom. I wonder if we are going to see any improvements in this area.
In this particular case it seems to be cheap for the trolls. It is the asymmetry that seems to be the issue i.e. cheap to attack but expensive to defend.
The problem with fixing that is you lots of little people will be dissuaded from filing in genuine cases.
It seems the real problem is that it is just as easy to file a frivolous case as a real one, but that is a general problem with life (which models are the right ones, which theories will bear fruit, which investment strategies will make money etc)
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#9The main problem seems to be how expensive the litigation is, not the patent trolls themselves, the trolls are just a symptom. I wonder if we are going to see any improvements in this area.
In this particular case it seems to be cheap for the trolls. It is the asymmetry that seems to be the issue i.e. cheap to attack but expensive to defend. The problem with fixing that is you lots of little people will be dissuaded from filing in genuine cases. It seems the real problem is that it is just as easy to file a frivolous case as a real one, but that is a general problem with life (which models are the right…
> It is the asymmetry that seems to be the issue i.e. cheap to attack but expensive to defend.
Same problem with DMCA takedowns.
Re: The art of taking down patent trolls
#10I'm as down as the next person on organizations like Sable Networks but honestly it's like being mad at rattlesnake that bites you if you step on it. They have a sleazy nature and they're being true to it. My real ire is towards Cisco and Juniper. They had the money to litigate the claims and decided to pay up. I cannot help but think that this was solely done to add fixed costs to any competitor.
> ... Cisco and Juniper ... add fixed costs to any competitor.
Brilliant observation that -- recalled for me reading long ago in a business journal that industrial giants sometimes offer no objection to heavier government regulation, because the relative disadvantage to smaller competitors can make it a net win for themselves.