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Patent trolls
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Wow, I was watching john oliver talk about patent trolls, opened up the forum and saw your post about patent trolls.
If a patent troll wins a court case, they're not a patent troll, they bought/applied for a patent and deserve the money.
If a patent troll wins a court case, they're not a patent troll, they bought/applied for a patent and deserve the money.
Not necessarily, it could just mean that the patent was "valid" and that the court agreed another company was infringing the "valid" patent.
However, since the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) admits to not understanding software, and didn't even want to issue software patents until Congress told them to, and issues patents for ridiculously generic things, and issues duplicate/redundant patents for stuff that has already been generically patented by twenty other companies, then someone can still win a court case and be a troll, and not deserve the money because the patent itself should never have been issued.
The problem in the patent system is the USPTO's incompetence (and parts of the legal system; for example, making it incredibly difficult to invalidate a patent), and the trolls taking advantage of it to extort everyone from large corporations to small businesses and even individuals into paying money.
I don't know the situation behind this particular case, but it's not correct to say in general that a won case automatically means they aren't trolls.
Little hope on the horizon for Austin Meyer of X-Plane? I still need to translate with google:
Makes you wonder why nobody has yet attacked the problem from that angle. If the USPTO indeed admits to not understanding the patents that they issue, then all these patents are by definition invalid. It's like holiding a contract in your hands signed by someone who isn't contractually capable (try and sell a car to a 5-year old one, for example).However, since the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) admits to not understanding software
If you read the entire article, you see Corel is suing Microsoft for patent infringement, so Microsoft is patenting a bunch of crap and suing them back.
Alot of patent usage, apart from the trolls, is MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) patent usage: Sue me with your stupid patents, and I'll sue you with my stupid patents.
With patents, it's partly numerical advantage. Attack them with 20 patents, and maybe the judge will strike down half of them, but you still win. The major companies basically try to encourage a cold-war approach between each other, and a mafia-shakedown approach to newcomers to get a cut of their profits (e.g. both Apple and Microsoft take a cut of all Android sales. Microsoft makes more off of Android sales from Samsung and Google and others, then Microsoft makes off of their own Windows phones).
Am I right that all those patent trolls only exist, as in Texas the loser doesn't need to pay all fees from both parties?
Well I guess that's why we don't see such in the EU.
Unbelievable:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/12/microsoft-patents-a-slider-earning-effs-stupid-patent-of-the-month-award/
Well, LibreOffice (which is really just OpenOffice) has that exact patented thingie in the bottom right corner. It predates the patent by 7 years.
So... kudos to the EFF for ridiculing an obvious patent and at the same time not seeing the obvious.
Am I right that all those patent trolls only exist, as in Texas the loser doesn't need to pay all fees from both parties?
That's right as far as I know, but...
Well I guess that's why we don't see such in the EU.
No. The reason we don't see them is Poland. The fees would not nearly be high enough to discourage a patent troll. You only need to win one case, and you have enough money to go to court another 20 times, even if you lose.
E-Patents were decided and were to be ratified by the member states when Poland joined the EU. First thing they said was: "The fuck, what? You guys crazy or what? No way!".
Thank you, Poland.
No, you don't see this in the EU as the EU has stated time and time again that software patents are invalid within the union. This does depend a bit on whether you consider the patent against software or not and this is technicality.Well I guess that's why we don't see such in the EU.
To quote Wikipedia:
Under the EPC, and in particular its Article 52,[1] "programs for computers" are not regarded as inventions for the purpose of granting European patents,[2] but this exclusion from patentability only applies to the extent to which a European patent..
yeah, hopefully the US finds a way to close down the loopholes that allow such companys to even exist.
Making over 600m $ with a small company of 15 people, not even really intending to develop a product, and just extorting money with patents you got from another company (for cheap I guess?) for a 5 year justice marathon sounds like a pretty sound "business plan"... if it works out. Getting their way with royalities would most probably make everyone in the company a billionaire without having to do much other than preparing their cases for court.
I guess the patent troll company is composed of lawyers and business sharks?
How is this kind of patent law beneficial to the economy or anyone besides some "criminals" working in a shady grey area that is still seen as legal today?
Remember, Al Capone didn't go to jail for extorting money from people, either. Nor for killing people. He went to jail after the supreme court ruled that illegal revenues are certainly subject to income tax, and Capone had failed to pay these. Note the cynical wording of "illegal revenues". It didn't matter that they were illegal, all that mattered was that he didn't pay the income tax.Making over 600m $ with a small company of 15 people, not even really intending to develop a product, and just extorting money with patents you got from another company (for cheap I guess?)
On the other hand, it's perfectly acceptable to extort someone as long as you are a good citizen and pay your taxes.
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