Patent lawyers agrees with my belief that Red Hat will have paid

Posted Oct 5, 2010 23:31 UTC (Tue) by bojan (subscriber, #14302)
In reply to: Patent lawyers agrees with my belief that Red Hat will have paid by Wol
Parent article: Red Hat settles patent case with Acacia - shares few details (InternetNews.com)

Yeah, maybe. I would think if RH were in such a strong position, they would want the troll to go to court, so they can invalidate their patent and make them pay. But, yeah, I see what you're saying.

On the flipside, RH may have gotten the deal because they couldn't fight this in court. Either way, it would be good to know what kind of "licence" changed hands.

Patent lawyers agrees with my belief that Red Hat will have paid

Posted Oct 6, 2010 3:21 UTC (Wed) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (3 responses)

The unfortunate reality is that often it's cheaper to simply pay the troll off then to sue them and defeat the patent.

If I was a patent troll and I had a weak patent then I'd just charge a licensing for it that would cost about 50-75% the cost of defeating it.

For most companies this is extremely effective way to troll companies.

Say your HP and you are faced with a troll that has a patent that they are threatening you with. You know that patent can just as easily be applied to Microsoft and IBM as it does apply to you and that, in fact, the troll will probably go after them next.

So you can choose to either pay them 50% to make them go away and they will then proceed to sue your competitors. Or you take them to court and pay 100% the costs to defeat the patent and then your faced with the loses while Microsoft and IBM got off completely without paying a dime.

What would you do if your legally responsible for people's livings, retirements, investments, etc etc etc?

Patent lawyers agrees with my belief that Red Hat will have paid

Posted Oct 6, 2010 3:43 UTC (Wed) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

That's a very common strategy.

And if a rich company calls their bluff and goes to court, they offer a very cheap out of court settlement so that their patent doesn't get invalidated and it even looks like it was enforced against a big company.

(In Pharma and cars, this doesn't work since all mass producers of those things have oodles of cash and lawyers. Patents simply don't suit software development.)

Patent lawyers agrees with my belief that Red Hat will have paid

Posted Oct 6, 2010 3:56 UTC (Wed) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link] (1 responses)

Maybe you misunderstood - I'm not blaming anyone at Red Hat for whichever outcome. They have to do the best they can in the crazy environment they're in. It would just be nice to know what really happened and what effect it will have to what.

I see you point with paying off the troll. At least you can inflict some damage on competitors while at it. Makes sense. In a crazy kind of way, of course.

Patent lawyers agrees with my belief that Red Hat will have paid

Posted Oct 6, 2010 14:14 UTC (Wed) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link]

I was not dissagreeing really. I was just offering a different possibility.