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> Do you mean damages could not possibly have been enough to pay back your legal fees Unfortunately yes. The infringer was not big enough to be worth it. How
by mchahn 8y ago
> Do you mean damages could not possibly have been enough to pay back your legal fees
Unfortunately yes. The infringer was not big enough to be worth it. However, that meant the patent was then worthless. If you don't enforce a patent you lose it.
Patents only seem to be worth it for large companies and trolls.
P.S. I have always been fascinated by a contrary story. The guy that invented the intermittent window wiper got a patent and the car companies ignored him for a very long time. He sued over and over with no lawyers and eventually got a huge sum of money. Unfortunately he was quite old by then.
- mcbits 8y ago> If you don't enforce a patent you lose it. Is this a European thing? I've heard of this for trademarks in the US, but never for patents.
- tialaramex 8y agoDon't mistake superstitions for reality. Even lawyers are terrible for this. There is a general principle in law called estoppel, which means that if you tacitly allow something, you may not later be able to act as though you didn't. With patents that could mean that if you tell Big Yellow Widgets it's fine to make a thing that's clearly your patented Foozablip, but then after a year you say hey, Big Yellow, we just decided you owe us $50 per unit for the patent, estoppel might mean that's not OK. But it wouldn't mean Big Yellow can just keep making them without paying now you've decided on a fee, or that everybody else can join in too. Your patent still applies, it would just be unfair for it to override your previous OK and cost Big Yellow all that money.
- mchahn 8y ago> Even lawyers are terrible for this. That would be surprising to me but I'm just quoting the lawyers. They might have just simplified it.