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What else would you expect a lawyer to recommend than something that makes lawyers money? Should app developers with, for an example, revenues of $5,000 to $10
by FlorianMueller 15y ago
What else would you expect a lawyer to recommend than something that makes lawyers money?
Should app developers with, for an example, revenues of $5,000 to $10,000 a year pay a patent attorney their entire annual income from their app for just a cursory (!) look at the issue (far from the cost of searching for prior art etc., which is way higher)? How practical is that?
Why doesn't the article talk about the cost of such legal defense and the risk of an East Texas jury handing a multi-million dollar damage award to Lodsys?
Why doesn't he compare the low cost of Lodsys's license for the average app developer to the cost of legal advice (let alone legal defense or damages ordered by a court)?
How can app developers without the resources in place to defend themselves ever even get to the point where they can seriously challenge Lodsys's claim chart?
How can one be not profoundly concerned when Lodsys sends a letter, given that Lodsys has already sued 27 entities and is embroiled in seven lawsuits in three different states?
And why does a self-proclaimed open source site like Groklaw promote a patent attorney who vigorously argues in favor of software patents on Twitter?
By the way, the same Patrick Igoe doubted in an email to me a few months ago that Nokia was in a position to turn Apple into the net payer. I predicted it in March, I reaffirmed that prediction in May, and I was proven right yesterday.
- malbs 15y agoThe only real advice he can give is "talk to a lawyer", just the same as advice you'd give to someone complaining of health issues with "talk to a doctor", whether you're a doctor or not doesn't matter. It has nothing to do with him looking after his own. Your advice is to simply pay the license fees?
- FlorianMueller 15y agoMy advice is not to simply pay the license fees, but if (1) Apple and Google don't help their app developers (Apple appears to be willing to help but the extent of it isn't clear yet; Google has neither said nor done anything so far) and (2) the licensee fees are in a given case much less than the cost of even a cursory legal analysis, then they're an economically more intelligent choice unless the license agreement contains anything that poses a risk comparable to the one of being sued without a license agreement.