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One avenue would be a non-profit organization that takes membership fees from software firms and uses the pooled money to fight these legal battles, or make col
by roc 14y ago
One avenue would be a non-profit organization that takes membership fees from software firms and uses the pooled money to fight these legal battles, or make collective licensing agreements.
The shakedown side of the troll business model relies on their being able to absorb more in legal fees than their targets. If their targets could actually force them to follow-through on their legal threats, the profitability of this method might drop to a level where they don't bother.
It would, unfortunately, do nothing about the cases where trolls are confident enough to take their shots at Google, Apple, Microsoft, et al.
- d2vid 14y agoHow about an IP lawfirm offering insurance against patent trolls? Your company pays an annual fee. Once you get a shakedown notice, the law firm responds, letting the patent troll know that you have $0 marginal cost to making a stand. If the law firm had enough clients, their incentive would be to go to court to invalidate bad patents so they don't have to keep responding to the same shakedown notices.
- paulrademacher 14y agoUgh, that's still protection money. It just went to a different lawyer.
- roc 14y agoTrue, but money you can plan for as a cost of doing business. Unlike shakedowns, which hit at unpredictable times for unpredictable amounts. It wouldn't be the solution, but it could be an improvement for small and medium-sized software vendors.