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"incredible amounts of customer goodwill" It gives them goodwill the question is how much and what is the amount of sales increase? Hackers tend to overestimat

by larrys 13y ago

"incredible amounts of customer goodwill" It gives them goodwill the question is how much and what is the amount of sales increase? Hackers tend to overestimate the importance of things like this and not take into account those in flyover country or people who aren't aware of things like this. Besides publicity gain isn't a reason to pursue a strategy like this. That's not a gamble that makes sense. "easy targets by patent trolls. It could end up saving them millions." Companies have used similar strategies against legal predators for the longest time. Nothing new about doing that. Yet many companies led by responsible legal teams and management also settle and move on. This is not clear cut by any means.

jlgreco 13y ago
> Hackers tend to overestimate the importance of things like this and not take into account those in flyover country or people who aren't aware of things like this. "'Hacker News' Hackers" also tend to grossly overestimate how well they know what is in the best interests of a company that they personally have little to do with.
- larrys 13y ago
  ""'Hacker News' Hackers"" Exactly. Take Godaddy (a competitor of ours) which is one of the most hated companies ever discussed on Hacker News. Yet they continue to do great business and are clearly well liked by many others who have no clue or care about the issues that forum readers care about. As an aside, companies that are the darling of any online forum can quickly have their name turn to "mud" if they don't continue to acquiesce to what the group thinks is the right thing to do. (Then the question is does that name turning to mud motivate those to actually take action.)
chetanahuja 13y ago
You seem to be somewhat adamant that this obviously major victory for Newegg was actually some sort of a problem for them. And this against an adversary which managed to extract rent from the likes of Intuit, Zappos, Sears and Amazon. NewEgg's strategy was obvious born out of a principled stand to not give in to unethical patent trolls. This also makes them a much more feared opponent for any future trolls... which is a huge win for the company's investors. "Nothing new about doing that. " Really.. ? Did you read that article ? Could you point to another instance of a company that's been successful against patent trolls to this extent ?
dasil003 13y ago
> Hackers tend to overestimate the importance of things like this and not take into account those in flyover country or people who aren't aware of things like this. "Flyover country" is full of hackers, but in any case, you seem to be completely ignoring Newegg's core demographic. > Yet many companies led by responsible legal teams and management also settle and move on. This is not clear cut by any means. You might even say most. Which is precisely why this is so interesting. I find it disturbing to pursue this line of thought of seriously questioning whether fighting and winning against a patent troll is irresponsible leadership in a company. Doing so plays right into the patent trolls hands. So what if the bean counters can't figure a better ROI than simply settling every time? There are gray areas in business and I think it's incredibly harmful to question whether shareholder interests are being maximally served every time a company does something that might be mistaken for altruism. Should we also denounce any company that goes beyond EPA standards or donates to charity beyond what tax law would dictate optimal?
hobs 13y ago
I see you are getting downvoted a bit, but I think this is a legit point to debate. Whether or not the bottom line is clear cut, I would say a few things: These lawyers are probably on retainer, and while they could be doing other things. This clearly gets them SOME amount of positive press, and certainly helps their bottom line if you believe that some future trolls will not attempt to sure them. It may also invalidate some laws that hurt their business and innovation which then allows them to potentially develop new products. Lastly, I would definitely argue it helps us a society, and corporations LOVE to buff their image with some hero bullshit story. Before these story, what did you know newegg for? Selling cheap hardware? What is their new image? Champion of the internet. (and their lawyer is a godamn bawse.) I don't know if you could buy this kind of press.

by larrys 13y ago

jlgreco 13y ago

> Hackers tend to overestimate the importance of things like this and not take into account those in flyover country or people who aren't aware of things like this. "'Hacker News' Hackers" also tend to grossly overestimate how well they know what is in the best interests of a company that they personally have little to do with.

larrys 13y ago
""'Hacker News' Hackers"" Exactly. Take Godaddy (a competitor of ours) which is one of the most hated companies ever discussed on Hacker News. Yet they continue to do great business and are clearly well liked by many others who have no clue or care about the issues that forum readers care about. As an aside, companies that are the darling of any online forum can quickly have their name turn to "mud" if they don't continue to acquiesce to what the group thinks is the right thing to do. (Then the question is does that name turning to mud motivate those to actually take action.)

chetanahuja 13y ago

You seem to be somewhat adamant that this obviously major victory for Newegg was actually some sort of a problem for them. And this against an adversary which managed to extract rent from the likes of Intuit, Zappos, Sears and Amazon. NewEgg's strategy was obvious born out of a principled stand to not give in to unethical patent trolls. This also makes them a much more feared opponent for any future trolls... which is a huge win for the company's investors. "Nothing new about doing that. " Really.. ? Did you read that article ? Could you point to another instance of a company that's been successful against patent trolls to this extent ?

dasil003 13y ago

> Hackers tend to overestimate the importance of things like this and not take into account those in flyover country or people who aren't aware of things like this. "Flyover country" is full of hackers, but in any case, you seem to be completely ignoring Newegg's core demographic. > Yet many companies led by responsible legal teams and management also settle and move on. This is not clear cut by any means. You might even say most. Which is precisely why this is so interesting. I find it disturbing to pursue this line of thought of seriously questioning whether fighting and winning against a patent troll is irresponsible leadership in a company. Doing so plays right into the patent trolls hands. So what if the bean counters can't figure a better ROI than simply settling every time? There are gray areas in business and I think it's incredibly harmful to question whether shareholder interests are being maximally served every time a company does something that might be mistaken for altruism. Should we also denounce any company that goes beyond EPA standards or donates to charity beyond what tax law would dictate optimal?

hobs 13y ago

I see you are getting downvoted a bit, but I think this is a legit point to debate. Whether or not the bottom line is clear cut, I would say a few things: These lawyers are probably on retainer, and while they could be doing other things. This clearly gets them SOME amount of positive press, and certainly helps their bottom line if you believe that some future trolls will not attempt to sure them. It may also invalidate some laws that hurt their business and innovation which then allows them to potentially develop new products. Lastly, I would definitely argue it helps us a society, and corporations LOVE to buff their image with some hero bullshit story. Before these story, what did you know newegg for? Selling cheap hardware? What is their new image? Champion of the internet. (and their lawyer is a godamn bawse.) I don't know if you could buy this kind of press.