Tag Archives: patent trolls

Troll-Killing Patent Reform One Step Closer

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Of course, today’s discussion draft is not perfect. Compared to the Shield Act, the attorney’s fees provision is watered down. (It does not include a bond requirement, for example.) And the customer suit provision is too weak. We need stronger reform to stop the disturbing trend of patent trolls picking on customers and end users. Finally, today’s discussion draft focuses on litigation system, rather than targeting the root cause of the problem: the flood of low-quality, over-broad software patents. Despite these reservations, we are encouraged to see so many good reforms in a single package.

via Troll-Killing Patent Reform One Step Closer | Electronic Frontier Foundation.

‘Patent trolls’ put brakes on S.F. transit app

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As far as anyone on the outside can tell, this is their sole business model: leveraging patents not to build competitive products, but simply to strong-arm others into forking over money when they create something that stumbles into the broadly worded language of the intellectual property protections.

via ‘Patent trolls’ put brakes on S.F. transit app – SFGate.

He was confident the patents in question were bogus, loose legalese describing obvious ideas. Moreover, the service that he received his data from, NextBus, already had a license to use those patents.

Patent troll backs down, agrees to stop suing public transit agencies

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Unfortunately, ArrivalStar’s many targets in the private sector are going to have to continue to grapple with the litigious patent-holding company. ArrivalStar has never taken its patents anywhere near a trial, and hardly any of its lawsuits even go beyond early stages of litigation. With today’s settlement, ArrivalStar can continue avoiding any rigorous testing of its patents.

via Patent troll backs down, agrees to stop suing public transit agencies | Ars Technica.

Eolas patents are dead on appeal

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Berners-Lee was one of several web pioneers who came through the court during the course of a four-day trial, which ultimately convinced a jury to invalidate two patents owned by Eolas, the tiny patent-holding company that Doyle and his lawyers transformed into one of the most fearsome “patent trolls” of all time.

Now Eolas appears to be gone for good. The company mounted a lengthy appeal, but it was all for naught; this morning, a three-judge appeals panel affirmed the jury’s verdict without comment.

via The Web’s longest nightmare ends: Eolas patents are dead on appeal | Ars Technica.

Why I’m not paying the Troll Toll

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Lodsys is seeking a percentage of revenue from the time they sent me the letter to the time their patent expired. Usually they request around 1% of your in-app-purchases. My company made about $500 with in-app-purchase during this time period and 1% of that is $5. What? I’m getting sued for $5? Given it cost Lodsys $350 to file the lawsuit I assumed they would ask for more than that. And they did.

Lodsys offered to settle with my company for $3,500. If I pay them off, what is stopping the next troll from knocking on my door? Nothing. And I’ve heard that if you pay a troll to go away it can lead to more trolls showing up.

via Why I’m not paying the Troll Toll | Todd Moore.

This passage seems like an appropriate response.

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: –
“We invaded you last night–we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ‘em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: –
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: –

“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!”

–Rudyard Kipling

Patent troll that sues public transit systems gets hauled into court

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ArrivalStar doesn’t want to litigate; it wants fast cash. The company has never taken a case to trial, and last year it admitted it had only seen one case through to the early “claim construction” phase.

via Patent troll that sues public transit systems gets hauled into court | Ars Technica.

This patent troll recently settled with Metra for $50K, Chicago’s local train operator.  Here’s a Chicago Tribune article:

Metra paid $50,000 in ‘frivolous’ patent suit, officials say – chicagotribune.com

White House effort targets ‘patent trolls’

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President Barack Obama spoke about the problem of patent litigation at a recent Google+ hangout, saying that patent trolls “don’t actually produce anything themselves” and instead develop a business model “to essentially leverage and hijack somebody else’s idea and see if they can extort some money out of them.”

via White House effort targets ‘patent trolls’ – Michelle Quinn – POLITICO.com.

Apple, betrayed by its own law firm

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FlatWorld Interactives sued Apple in April 2012, naming just about every gadget in Apple’s arsenal as a product that infringed its two related patents, said to cover swiping gestures on a touch screen. Over the next three months, the company filed similar lawsuits against LG Electronics and Samsung, against a wide array of smartphones made by those companies.

via Apple, betrayed by its own law firm | Ars Technica.

Newegg nukes “corporate troll” Alcatel in third patent appeal win this year

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At trial in East Texas Cheng took the stand to tell Newegg’s story. Alcatel-Lucent’s corporate representative, at the heart of its massive licensing campaign, couldn’t even name the technology or the patents it was suing Newegg over.

via Newegg nukes “corporate troll” Alcatel in third patent appeal win this year | Ars Technica.

This is big win #2 in recent times for Newegg.  Here’s their win against the shopping cart patent.

BT unleashes SIP licensing troll army

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VoIP-to-PSTN termination providers and SIP vendors will be watching their inboxes for a lawyer’s letter from BT, which has kicked off a taxing licensing program levying a fee on the industry, based on a list of 99 patents.

via BT unleashes SIP licensing troll army • The Register.

A useful comment from slashdot.

The IETF MMUSIC (Multiparty Multimedia Session Control) Working Group started working on Session Protocols [ietf.org] in 1993.

Initial Internet drafts for a Session Invitation Protocol and a Simple Conference Invitation Protocol were prepared in 1996, and merged to a single first draft of SIP by December 1996 (slide 10 [columbia.edu]), with further drafts (2-12) leading up to the publication of RFC 2543 in March of 1999 (slides 11-13, ibid.).

I don’t see anything that says BT had a hand in anything to do with SIP up to 1996. More than half the patents BT claims (Exhibit C [btplc.com]) were filed after RFC 2543 was published.

I hope this information is a useful starting point for some SIP vendor.