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Wired fell for this guy's story. This feels incredibly fishy. A random guy feels sorry for Uber, the lovable plucky underdog of all companies... and invests

by golfer 9y ago

Wired fell for this guy's story. This feels incredibly fishy. A random guy feels sorry for Uber, the lovable plucky underdog of all companies... and invests lots of time and $6K to invalidate patents? It just doesn't compute. There must be a tie between this guy and someone at Uber. Or it's VC backers.

asabjorn 9y ago
Why would it benefit Uber or its backers to hire him unofficially instead of hiring experts directly? It seems like he was able to make a solid case for invalidating the patent, and hiring experts to investigate patent claims is pretty standard in patent lawsuits. It makes me wonder why Uber didn't hire such experts, or if they did and this guy beat them to the punch.
- Buge 9y ago
  Yeah, it makes Uber look kind of incompetent, like they didn't do their research (Google too). If he was hired by Uber to do the research, only Google would look incompetent.
  - jrf6 9y ago
    It makes their experts look incompetent. Quite a bit of what this guy found should have been low-hanging fruit for an expert witness.
    - bonesss 9y ago
      Any chance they were saving that for the trial? Strategically, isn't it better for Uber to let Waymo yap on and on about it and then crush them during the trial than to ask the patent office for a review and let Waymo drop the issue before the trial even starts? I mean... if I knew something embarrassing that opposing council didn't know, and I had no obligation to inform them, I would definitely see that knowledge as a weapon and a strategic tool. Letting Waymo drop it without embarrassment is a bit of a win for Waymo, IMO.
      - rhino369 9y ago
        >Any chance they were saving that for the trial? Yes. >Strategically, isn't it better for Uber to let Waymo yap on and on about it and then crush them during the trial than to ask the patent office for a review and let Waymo drop the issue before the trial even starts? Uber would have to inform Waymo of their invalidity theory way before trial. You can't spring new prior art right before trial.
- rhino369 9y ago
  You don’t have to invalidate the patents at the USPTO. You can argue invalidity in court. Uber almost certainly looked for prior art. And in most cases uber wouldn’t use ex parte re-examine. They’d do an inter partes review, which would them to stay in the proceeding and argue for invalidity.
  - asabjorn 9y ago
    What is the difference between inter partes review and ex parte re-examine?
    - rhino369 9y ago
      The biggest difference is ex parte re-exam doesn't allow the requester to participate. It's just the patent owner and the examiners. If the patent owner makes an incorrect statement to try to keep the patent there is nothing you can do. An IPR is a full hearing on the validity. With evidence, depositions, briefing, and oral arguments.
zodiac 9y ago
The article begins by making a plausible story for his motivation. He had been sued for patent infringement in his own company - "overreaching patents" caused a lot of damage to him personally before and he saw Alphabet use one to attack Uber. And Uber is indeed smaller than Alphabet.

by golfer 9y ago

asabjorn 9y ago

Why would it benefit Uber or its backers to hire him unofficially instead of hiring experts directly? It seems like he was able to make a solid case for invalidating the patent, and hiring experts to investigate patent claims is pretty standard in patent lawsuits. It makes me wonder why Uber didn't hire such experts, or if they did and this guy beat them to the punch.

Buge 9y ago
Yeah, it makes Uber look kind of incompetent, like they didn't do their research (Google too). If he was hired by Uber to do the research, only Google would look incompetent.
- jrf6 9y ago
  It makes their experts look incompetent. Quite a bit of what this guy found should have been low-hanging fruit for an expert witness.
  - bonesss 9y ago
    Any chance they were saving that for the trial? Strategically, isn't it better for Uber to let Waymo yap on and on about it and then crush them during the trial than to ask the patent office for a review and let Waymo drop the issue before the trial even starts? I mean... if I knew something embarrassing that opposing council didn't know, and I had no obligation to inform them, I would definitely see that knowledge as a weapon and a strategic tool. Letting Waymo drop it without embarrassment is a bit of a win for Waymo, IMO.
    - rhino369 9y ago
      >Any chance they were saving that for the trial? Yes. >Strategically, isn't it better for Uber to let Waymo yap on and on about it and then crush them during the trial than to ask the patent office for a review and let Waymo drop the issue before the trial even starts? Uber would have to inform Waymo of their invalidity theory way before trial. You can't spring new prior art right before trial.
rhino369 9y ago
You don’t have to invalidate the patents at the USPTO. You can argue invalidity in court. Uber almost certainly looked for prior art. And in most cases uber wouldn’t use ex parte re-examine. They’d do an inter partes review, which would them to stay in the proceeding and argue for invalidity.
- asabjorn 9y ago
  What is the difference between inter partes review and ex parte re-examine?
  - rhino369 9y ago
    The biggest difference is ex parte re-exam doesn't allow the requester to participate. It's just the patent owner and the examiners. If the patent owner makes an incorrect statement to try to keep the patent there is nothing you can do. An IPR is a full hearing on the validity. With evidence, depositions, briefing, and oral arguments.

zodiac 9y ago

The article begins by making a plausible story for his motivation. He had been sued for patent infringement in his own company - "overreaching patents" caused a lot of damage to him personally before and he saw Alphabet use one to attack Uber. And Uber is indeed smaller than Alphabet.