4 ms·

Actually the troll term applies to the lawyers that specialize in finding items being sold with expired patent numbers on them: http://overlawyered.com/2009/06

Actually the troll term applies to the lawyers that specialize in finding items being sold with expired patent numbers on them: http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/a-fortune-in-his-coffee-cup/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/a-fortune-in-his-coffee-cup/ They don't need to have any connection with the offending firms, and they get half the fine as a bounty. At $500 per item, that's quite a haul! In the original case, a lawyer noticed his coffee cup was stamped with out-dated patent numbers, so imagine the potential fine there.

henrikschroder 17y ago
I don't see how this is actually bad? Everybody wins, except the companies that use actually fraudulent marketing.
- petewarden 17y ago
  Why exactly do we need to pay a lawyer $250 per coffee cup to stop this? Leaving patent numbers on designs you've been selling for decades is a technical violation, but this sort of bounty-seeking loophole is a terrible way to stop it.