4 ms·

Lately my group of friends have been discussing the most underhanded ways to get PAE's to bugger off. Nothing serious, but it's interesting to think about how o

by zalzane 13y ago

Lately my group of friends have been discussing the most underhanded ways to get PAE's to bugger off. Nothing serious, but it's interesting to think about how one of these PAE lawyers would react if you told him his daughter's name and the school she goes to. It kinda surprises me that none of these extortion cases have escalated to that sort of thing. When someone puts 5-10 years of sweat, blood and tears into a company, it would surprise me if there wasn't a single example in the country where one of those entrepreneurs reacted violently to this kind of extortion racket.

rfctr 13y ago
> how one of these PAE lawyers would react if you told him his daughter's name and the school she goes to They would make sure you're behind bars in no time.
- pkinsky 13y ago
  What if 'you' are an anonymous remailer service account and a bitcoin address? It would be amusing if patent trolling got bad enough to force startups to operate on the black market. After all, what's the ROI on legitimacy if the state can't protect you from banditry?
  - rfctr 13y ago
    What if his daughter really got killed or raped?
    - pkinsky 13y ago
      <sociopath>Other patent assertion entities would be inspired to think carefully about targeting entities subscribing to our protection service.</sociopath>
      - rfctr 13y ago
        I dunno how it is in US, but in other places all kinds of shady businesses are protected by organized crime. Try to harass their businesses and jokes may end pretty quick.
- toomuchtodo 13y ago
  Note to self: Do this in a state with a "stand your ground" law. "First, we kill all the lawyers" - Shakespeare, Henry VI
- dhimes 13y ago
  I'm late to the thread here, but, as one who has received a threat (entirely different situation), non-specific threats by themselves are usually non-actionable.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
noonespecial 13y ago
Witness one Josiah Bacon, at patent attorney who travelled the country extorting settlements from small dentists using false teeth... http://99percentinvisible.org/post/16570523049/episode-46-vulcanite-dentures-or-when-patent http://99percentinvisible.org/post/16570523049/episode-46-vu...
larrys 13y ago
Well in general (and not specific to this situation) one of the effective ways you can deal with someone like this is to waste as much of their time as possible in whatever way can. The person on the phone has to have a certain amount of productivity and while they are not going to drop their claim against you if you become a nice pain in the ass they will have the motivation to work with you. If you are quick and easy off the phone they have nothing to loose (their time is preserved). I've done similar things with both government officials (got a penalty reduced in half) as well as attorneys working on behalf of someone else. Once again you can't be threatening you have to be nice. Waste as much time as you legitimately can is the bottom line.
- vijayr 13y ago
  but aren't you wasting your time too, while wasting theirs? for them, it is a full time job (so they might not care), but for the people who have to deal with them, it isn't
  - larrys 13y ago
    Well you would have to calculate the value of your time vs. either a) cost of attorneys (whose time is very expensive and it's a black box of costs) b) other things that you do that could be offloaded to someone else or perhaps c) putting someone of less value in charge of wasting of time. We are not talking about hours and hours all at once either. We are talking about being a constant time waster and pain in the ass a little bit at a time or as much as possible while still flying under the radar and appearing not to be doing it on purpose (which you are). At a certain point people will act in their self interest and perhaps give you what you want. At least that has been my experience when I've followed this path.

by zalzane 13y ago

rfctr 13y ago

> how one of these PAE lawyers would react if you told him his daughter's name and the school she goes to They would make sure you're behind bars in no time.

pkinsky 13y ago
What if 'you' are an anonymous remailer service account and a bitcoin address? It would be amusing if patent trolling got bad enough to force startups to operate on the black market. After all, what's the ROI on legitimacy if the state can't protect you from banditry?
- rfctr 13y ago
  What if his daughter really got killed or raped?
  - pkinsky 13y ago
    <sociopath>Other patent assertion entities would be inspired to think carefully about targeting entities subscribing to our protection service.</sociopath>
    - rfctr 13y ago
      I dunno how it is in US, but in other places all kinds of shady businesses are protected by organized crime. Try to harass their businesses and jokes may end pretty quick.
toomuchtodo 13y ago
Note to self: Do this in a state with a "stand your ground" law. "First, we kill all the lawyers" - Shakespeare, Henry VI
dhimes 13y ago
I'm late to the thread here, but, as one who has received a threat (entirely different situation), non-specific threats by themselves are usually non-actionable.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

noonespecial 13y ago

Witness one Josiah Bacon, at patent attorney who travelled the country extorting settlements from small dentists using false teeth... http://99percentinvisible.org/post/16570523049/episode-46-vulcanite-dentures-or-when-patent http://99percentinvisible.org/post/16570523049/episode-46-vu...

larrys 13y ago

Well in general (and not specific to this situation) one of the effective ways you can deal with someone like this is to waste as much of their time as possible in whatever way can. The person on the phone has to have a certain amount of productivity and while they are not going to drop their claim against you if you become a nice pain in the ass they will have the motivation to work with you. If you are quick and easy off the phone they have nothing to loose (their time is preserved). I've done similar things with both government officials (got a penalty reduced in half) as well as attorneys working on behalf of someone else. Once again you can't be threatening you have to be nice. Waste as much time as you legitimately can is the bottom line.

vijayr 13y ago
but aren't you wasting your time too, while wasting theirs? for them, it is a full time job (so they might not care), but for the people who have to deal with them, it isn't
- larrys 13y ago
  Well you would have to calculate the value of your time vs. either a) cost of attorneys (whose time is very expensive and it's a black box of costs) b) other things that you do that could be offloaded to someone else or perhaps c) putting someone of less value in charge of wasting of time. We are not talking about hours and hours all at once either. We are talking about being a constant time waster and pain in the ass a little bit at a time or as much as possible while still flying under the radar and appearing not to be doing it on purpose (which you are). At a certain point people will act in their self interest and perhaps give you what you want. At least that has been my experience when I've followed this path.