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Extracting a Toll From a Patent ‘Troll’
- grej 13y agoThis is potentially positive, but many times the patent troll shell companies deliberately hold very few assets. Even if the Supreme Court makes it easier to capture legal fees from them, there may not be a lot to capture (if anything).
- snorkel 13y agoBut even bankrupting the small shell entity causes enough overhead for the parent company to hesitate before attacking.
- bd_at_rivenhill 13y agoA sane legal system would then require the plaintiff to post a bond in this case.
- grej 13y agoAgree with both sentiments. There needs to be some mechanism to pierce the shell corporation and get to the beneficiaries, whether they are the representing legal firm or the licensing entities, in egregious cases.
- noonespecial 13y agoA good idea might be that in egregious cases, the law firm representing the troll might also be fined for their participation.
- Zikes 13y agoThey own the patent, I say make them give that up since it's obviously worth so much.
- TrainedMonkey 13y agoThis could be heaven or it could be hell. Supreme court precedent either could kick patent troll war into overdrive or it could secure their place under the sun. One would be good for startups and competition. Guess which.
- theorique 13y agoAs we learned from IASIP, "you got to pay the troll toll".
- BlackDeath3 13y agoMy first thought as well :)
- theorique 13y agoWorth a little downvote :)
- revelation 13y agoHow about you lose, you pay? The "small pennyless inventor" is a romantic fantasy.
- logicallee 13y agoEveryone is penniless compared to the size of the market where every participant can instantly copy just the components. For existing tech, there's nothing special about this - of course you can assemble a bicycle the same way every other bike is assembled. But for new tech this is a killer difference: with the protections, "penniless" inventors (everyone) has a chance to make a fundamental investment of time and resources. Without the invention you can just do unpaid R&D for the existing players. If they can also sue you in case they outlaw you, then even the possibility of licensing to them disappears.
- logicallee 13y ago"outlaw" should read "out-lawyer", "without the invention" should be "without the protection". Sorry about the haste.