Are You A Company Or Developer Threatened By Patent Trolls? Please Take This Quick Survey

from the thanks dept

Law professor Colleen Chien, who has done some great work on the issue of patent trolls, is looking for insights and data from companies and developers who have been threatened by patent trolls. She's created a survey and is seeking input from those on the receiving end of patent threats: demand letters, lawsuits, etc. I know plenty of folks here have experienced that themselves and/or work for companies who have. If you have directly been on the receiving end, please fill out the (short) survey. If you work for a company who has, or if you know someone else who has been in this situation, please share the survey with them. The more accurate data that Chien has, the better the research will turn out in the end.
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Filed Under: patent trolls, patents, research, study


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 4:55pm

    Talk to your lawyer

    If you are involved in a patent dispute, then do not make any statements out of court without your attorney's advice.

    That specifically includes soi-disant “anonymous” surveys.

    If you violate your company policy on this, expect immediate termination. Security will escort you to your cube to retrieve your personal belongings, and then escort you out of the building.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 5:27pm

    Re: Talk to your lawyer

    Right, I'll do just that. I always listen to legal threats by Anonymous Cowards on the internet.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 5:45pm

    As an inventor, fabricator and prolem solver this may be just what I need. Thank You

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 5:52pm

    Re: Re: Talk to your lawyer

    Actually, that was the old standard policy. The new policy has been updated to reflect unfortunate workplace realities:

    • Security will escort you directly to the parking lot.

    • Security will pack up your personal belongings themselves, and you will receive them in a box offsite.

    Consult your employee handbook for further details.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 5:59pm

    Re: Re: Re: Talk to your lawyer

    You make no sense, why would security escort me from my own company? And when did I hire security anyway? We're not Apple nor some kind of stereotypical Hollywood office space. And cubicles? Really? This isn't the 90's. Are you some kind of out-of-touch, idiot, basement dweller?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Jul 2012 @ 6:01pm

    Re: Talk to your lawyer

    I'm curious, what year do you think it is?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    The Groove Tiger (profile), 25 Jul 2012 @ 9:05pm

    Re:

    That is interesting. Please tell me more about I didn't know that a stay at home mom able to get paid.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    Danny (profile), 26 Jul 2012 @ 5:18am

    Re: Talk to your lawyer

    Fortunately my employer has no security, unless you mean the alarm system but I'm not sure how that can escort me anywhere.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    Oblate (profile), 26 Jul 2012 @ 6:03am

    Obviously no one who is currently in or under threat of litigation should post details here- but I'm sure there are some great stories from people who are no longer under such threat (and not under an NDA). Maybe they could post here- what happened, did they win, lose, or settle? Or maybe someone could just post links to the patents used by trolls? Getting them 'out' might help reveal prior art or other info that could help defeat them. IANAL, btw.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    staff, 26 Jul 2012 @ 10:00am

    another biased article

    “Patent troll”

    Call it what you will...patent hoarder, patent troll, non-practicing entity, shell company, etc. It all means one thing: “we’re using your invention and we’re not going to pay or stop”. This is just dissembling by large infringers and their paid puppets to kill any inventor support system. It is purely about legalizing theft. The fact is, many of the large multinationals who defame inventors in this way themselves make no products in the US or create any American jobs and it is their continued blatant theft which makes it impossible for the true creators to do so.

    Prior to eBay v Mercexchange, small entities had a viable chance at commercializing their inventions. If the defendant was found guilty, an injunction was most always issued. Then the inventor small entity could enjoy the exclusive use of his invention in commercializing it. Unfortunately, injunctions are often no longer available to small entity inventors because of the Supreme Court decision so we have no fair chance to compete with much larger entities who are now free to use our inventions. Essentially, large infringers now have your gun and all the bullets. Worse yet, inability to commercialize means those same small entities will not be hiring new employees to roll out their products and services. And now some of those same parties who killed injunctions for small entities and thus blocked their chance at commercializing now complain that small entity inventors are not commercializing. They created the problem and now they want to blame small entities for it. What dissembling! If you don’t like this state of affairs (your unemployment is running out), tell your Congress member. Then maybe we can get some sense back in the patent system with injunctions fully enforceable on all infringers by all inventors, large and small.

    Those wishing to help fight big business giveaways should contact us as below and join the fight as we are building a network of inventors and other stakeholders to lobby Congress to restore property rights for all patent owners -large and small.

    For the truth about trolls, please see http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html#pt.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    gnudist, 26 Jul 2012 @ 10:13am

    Re: another biased article

    Standard boilerplate spam from a shill.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    Somponts (profile), 25 Sep 2012 @ 8:27am

    Re: another biased article

    Thanks for the link; interesting information over there, even though that site looks like it was made in the 90's

    link to this | view in thread ]


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