4 ms·
For what it's worth, it's happened to my company (a smaller company sued by a larger competitor), and the litigation has dragged on for almost three years now w
by akeefer 16y ago
For what it's worth, it's happened to my company (a smaller company sued by a larger competitor), and the litigation has dragged on for almost three years now without going to trial.
I've heard of other similar incidents as well. They're far more likely if you're going into an existing market against well-funded (and shameless) incumbents than it is if you're in a nice market.
You're correct that the rational response is to not worry about it, simply because there's nothing you can do about it as a software startup. If someone wants to sue you, they will, no matter how far you go out of your way to avoid violating patents. So you just kind of hope you don't get unlucky and get sued before the company becomes big enough to file their own patents for defensive purposes.
Just because something happens infrequently doesn't mean it's not a real problem.
- kenjackson 16y agoWhat was your company? I'd love to know this history. I've just never seen it happen that a large company files suit against a small startup. The closest thing is something like MS vs SalesForce, but SalesForce is hardly a small company. Again, I'm not saying it doesn't happen at all. But so do random bits flipping due to cosmic rays, but I don't think we should change how we write code due to it. Something are sufficiently rare that they're not worth spending much time on.
- akeefer 16y agoI don't think we should change how we write code, either: I think we should change the patent system so this stuff doesn't happen. I get tired of hearing the "it's just big companies suing other big companies" argument about why patents aren't a problem. Software patents generally don't stifle innovation because people don't do something because they're worried about patents: they stifle innovation by diverting huge financial and mental resources to patent lawsuits (and patent filing) that could otherwise go to product development or something else useful, and occasionally by crippling companies that aren't large enough to defend themselves. It's just kind of tax on the industry as a whole where the net effect is to siphon money and energy away from important things and towards lawyers. You'd have approximately the same effect if you replaced the patent system with roving bands of feral lawyers that went around randomly destroying property and burning down offices. You wouldn't say, "Hmm, I don't think I'll write software because some lawyer might burn my house down," but dealing with all that destruction would drain resources from other areas, and sometimes it would be too much for a company to overcome. I can't really get into any specifics of the litigation because it's still ongoing.
- alain94040 16y agohttp://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4068478/Mentor-EVE-settle-patent-lawsuit http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4068478/Mentor-EVE-s...