Patent Trolls

[MrSaigon]

Scum. Far worse than worthless way to make a living. Read about them. They buy patents just to sue people over. If that wasn't bad enough, they also threaten small businesses (or in some cases, nonprofits) which probably don't carry or retain lawyers with suits if a fee to them isn't paid. A fee which is less than what you would pay a lawyer to fight it, and a suit that may or may not have any grounds.

Rave-Vermont is taking a legal stand against them.

[mikechamp]

Do you follow Mark Cuban on Twitter? He frequently posts about this.

[thrill]

Not only do you have to be a garbage human to try to get rich off of other people's work, but these people aren't targeting huge corporations. They're targeting independent media creators & entrepreneurs.

[mikechamp]

Because if they target big corporations, the trolls won't have the money for the long, drawn-out fight with their legal counsels.

[heyzeus]

I know someone who is about to accept a job with one of the firms filing these suits. It's causing him some anguish, but he really needs a position.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Wait, can't a firm that is being sued incorrectly just hire a lawyer to say, more or less, "You have no case and if you don't go away we will counter sue for lawyer fees plus whatever else"?

I've been involved in a couple cases like that where our attorney has sent out letters and everything has just kind of gone away.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Also, [expletive] Mark Cuban.

A guy around here went on the show "Shark Tank" and Cuban 'won' the bidding war which essentially meant he (Cuban) sic'd his lawyers on the poor guy and voided everything that happened on the show which I guess is to be expected. But, then the poor guy who thought he had a deal not only was lawyer'd by Cuban, he then lost his job for not telling his company what he was doing/working on in his spare time.

[MrSaigon]

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-a ... k-part-two

Part 1 from 2011: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-a ... nts-attack

Come to think of it, part one here may be where I first heard about this stuff. If anyone here is in Anonymous, this outfit in Texas would be a great target for you guys.