3 ms·

I'm worried about Linux phone operating systems at this point. They seem ripe for this sort of trolling.

grej 5y ago
Good question. What actually happens if an open source permissive license product is accused of violating a patent? There’s not exactly a company to sue.
- tsimionescu 5y ago
  There is always a company, NGO or individual(s) that is distributing the code.
hedora 5y ago
I'm not. There's no point suing for patent infringement unless (a) you want to squash competitors or (b) you think you'll get a bucket of money. Since they were bought up by a nonpracticing entity, (a) doesn't apply. There's no way they'll recoup their $600M investment by going after companies that sell low volume, low margin devices. By the time the Linux phone people have war chests to raid, theses patents will be expired. Rest assured they're targeting some subset of FAANG. The article mentions a patent on charging batteries. Facebook and Amazon sell stuff with batteries in them. Perhaps the trolls think they can extract a few hundred million from Oculus and Fire tablets. Come to think of it, Tesla probably has some cash laying around, and I think their cars can move and also contain batteries. Why should they be allowed to freeload? Similarly, ICE cars use lead acid batteries, don't they? This patent could be a gold mine, and we owe it all to RIM for inventing the rechargeable battery in the mid 1990's! I wonder when the current patent on charging rechargeable batteries expires. I wonder who the PTO will issue the next iteration to, and if they're publicly held...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- Jiro 5y ago
  >There's no way they'll recoup their $600M investment by going after companies that sell low volume, low margin devices. Patent trolls sometimes sue people without money in order to get precedents that can be used against people with money.
  - linspace 5y ago
    That's twice (lawfull) evil. It's like the smaller companies are little sacrifices to warm up the summoning.
  - fvv 5y ago
    So the solution is easy, Big player should give their lawyers to the people without money in those proceeds so to not allow such precedents to be created
- konschubert 5y ago
  If the parents are from the 90s, why have they not expired?
  - PlanckMeasure80 5y ago
    We live a little longer these days
    - konschubert 5y ago
      Patents. I meant Patents.

grej 5y ago

Good question. What actually happens if an open source permissive license product is accused of violating a patent? There’s not exactly a company to sue.

tsimionescu 5y ago
There is always a company, NGO or individual(s) that is distributing the code.

hedora 5y ago

I'm not. There's no point suing for patent infringement unless (a) you want to squash competitors or (b) you think you'll get a bucket of money. Since they were bought up by a nonpracticing entity, (a) doesn't apply. There's no way they'll recoup their $600M investment by going after companies that sell low volume, low margin devices. By the time the Linux phone people have war chests to raid, theses patents will be expired. Rest assured they're targeting some subset of FAANG. The article mentions a patent on charging batteries. Facebook and Amazon sell stuff with batteries in them. Perhaps the trolls think they can extract a few hundred million from Oculus and Fire tablets. Come to think of it, Tesla probably has some cash laying around, and I think their cars can move and also contain batteries. Why should they be allowed to freeload? Similarly, ICE cars use lead acid batteries, don't they? This patent could be a gold mine, and we owe it all to RIM for inventing the rechargeable battery in the mid 1990's! I wonder when the current patent on charging rechargeable batteries expires. I wonder who the PTO will issue the next iteration to, and if they're publicly held...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Jiro 5y ago
>There's no way they'll recoup their $600M investment by going after companies that sell low volume, low margin devices. Patent trolls sometimes sue people without money in order to get precedents that can be used against people with money.
- linspace 5y ago
  That's twice (lawfull) evil. It's like the smaller companies are little sacrifices to warm up the summoning.
- fvv 5y ago
  So the solution is easy, Big player should give their lawyers to the people without money in those proceeds so to not allow such precedents to be created
konschubert 5y ago
If the parents are from the 90s, why have they not expired?
- PlanckMeasure80 5y ago
  We live a little longer these days
  - konschubert 5y ago
    Patents. I meant Patents.