Patent Blackmail
from the there-should-be-a-law... dept
There should be a law against filing frivolous patent suits. That's the only way we're ever going to stop things like the following ridiculous set of patent lawsuits. There's a company that owns a few patents that they claim shows they own ecommerce. If you sell anything on the web, they feel you owe them a licensing fee. They're looking for $30,000. They handpicked 11 different small e-commerce sites to go after first. This is, of course, a form of blackmail. For most companies to fight this in court, it will cost them more than $30,000. So, the "smart" thing for a small company to do is to just settle - and this lawyer will go on threatening more companies and raking in the money. Luckily, some people realize the fight is worth it, and are taking the company on - but it's not likely to stop them from doing the same exact thing again with some other ridiculous patents.
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How would a law help?
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And for my next patent...
I mean, while the government is giving away stupid patents, we might as well monopolize on them for our favor.
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Re: And for my next patent...
Heehee...would this be ironic recursion?
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