4 ms·

Patent trolls don't go after non-US software companies so long as there's no US entity or office, mostly because they can't.

nickff 13y ago
Patent trolls can sue the customers of the software company (as Microsoft did to Google by suing Samsung), or the trolls can seek to obtain the money which is paid to the respondent (software company) from the USA. It is more difficult to sue non-US companies for some issues other than patents.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  For a lot of purposes though, that's unlikely to happen for small companies. I struggle to imagine Lodsys and friends suing someone who downloaded an app from Google Play or paid for a web app. Plus, if the money has already been remitted (and that tends to happen especially fast in the world of low ATVs), they haven't got a hope. As one patent troll told me on reddit, there's just too much gold to mine and low hanging fruit in the US to bother with anyone else.
gsb 13y ago
Uniloc sued Mojang (makers of Minecraft), which is a Swedish company. In Texas of course. Mojang is bigger than many small companies, but is still quite small.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  Thank you for pointing this out! I've actually been trying to find an example of a patent troll suing a foreign corporation that doesn't have offices in the US. This lawsuit does appear to be very rare and exceptional, and here's the complaint: http://notch.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mojang.pdf http://notch.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mojang.pdf I wonder whether they'd have actually been successful had they not withdrawn. It seems a bit strained that they claim they're doing business in Texas.
  - gsb 13y ago
    What makes you say that the suit was withdrawn? I can't find confirmation of that anywhere.
    - kintamanimatt 13y ago
      Apologies, I think I'm wrong. I appear to have misread or misremembered what I read.
  - sergiotapia 13y ago
    That is just god damn disgraceful. http://www.google.com/patents/US6857067 http://www.google.com/patents/US6857067 "System and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data" What in the world is going on with the US patent system that things like this are emitted.

nickff 13y ago

Patent trolls can sue the customers of the software company (as Microsoft did to Google by suing Samsung), or the trolls can seek to obtain the money which is paid to the respondent (software company) from the USA. It is more difficult to sue non-US companies for some issues other than patents.

kintamanimatt 13y ago
For a lot of purposes though, that's unlikely to happen for small companies. I struggle to imagine Lodsys and friends suing someone who downloaded an app from Google Play or paid for a web app. Plus, if the money has already been remitted (and that tends to happen especially fast in the world of low ATVs), they haven't got a hope. As one patent troll told me on reddit, there's just too much gold to mine and low hanging fruit in the US to bother with anyone else.

gsb 13y ago

Uniloc sued Mojang (makers of Minecraft), which is a Swedish company. In Texas of course. Mojang is bigger than many small companies, but is still quite small.

kintamanimatt 13y ago
Thank you for pointing this out! I've actually been trying to find an example of a patent troll suing a foreign corporation that doesn't have offices in the US. This lawsuit does appear to be very rare and exceptional, and here's the complaint: http://notch.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mojang.pdf http://notch.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/mojang.pdf I wonder whether they'd have actually been successful had they not withdrawn. It seems a bit strained that they claim they're doing business in Texas.
- gsb 13y ago
  What makes you say that the suit was withdrawn? I can't find confirmation of that anywhere.
  - kintamanimatt 13y ago
    Apologies, I think I'm wrong. I appear to have misread or misremembered what I read.
- sergiotapia 13y ago
  That is just god damn disgraceful. http://www.google.com/patents/US6857067 http://www.google.com/patents/US6857067 "System and method for preventing unauthorized access to electronic data" What in the world is going on with the US patent system that things like this are emitted.