Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Despite some victories -- including one against that same Acacia last year -- Red Hat has elected to settle with what it deems patent trolls in various cases which it cannot disclose, according to Whitehurst. [...] 'When it's so little money, at some point, bluntly, it's better to settle than fight these things out,' Whitehurst said. [...] Red Hat fights when it believes bigger principles are at stake. Red Hat and Novell jointly won a case against an Acacia subsidiary in East Texas last year when a jury ruled that the companies did not infringe on user interface patents. Red Hat also filed an amicus brief on behalf of rival Microsoft in a patent dispute pending before the Supreme Court."
Posted May 5, 2011 20:54 UTC (Thu)
by stumbles (guest, #8796)
[Link] (9 responses)
Posted May 5, 2011 21:24 UTC (Thu)
by stijn (subscriber, #570)
[Link]
Posted May 5, 2011 22:19 UTC (Thu)
by wahern (subscriber, #37304)
[Link] (2 responses)
I'd be interested to know how many claims are settled in lieu of trial in other patent areas, such as the pharmaceutical or chemicals industries. I wouldn't be surprised if the rate is roughly similar across the board. There's an equilibrium price based on a lot of factors, so it's not a slippery slope to being completely fleeced by trolls. Red Hat knows what they're doing.
Posted May 6, 2011 14:28 UTC (Fri)
by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
[Link] (1 responses)
THAT is where FLOSS failed - the proponents did not succeed in convincing SCOTUS that "software == maths". That battle hasn't been lost though, it just hasn't been won.
There's probably far fewer "problems" in the pharmaceutical and engineering world, mainly because it's a lot easier for a startup to do a pre-emptive patent search. There's less out there to be surprised by.
Hopefully Google is going to rewrite all the Oracle patent claims in Haskell :-) and that SHOULD be the end of software patents :-)
Cheers,
Posted May 7, 2011 1:17 UTC (Sat)
by elanthis (guest, #6227)
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Posted May 6, 2011 7:50 UTC (Fri)
by Priscus (guest, #72409)
[Link] (3 responses)
Pay them once, they know where to come back to.
Posted May 6, 2011 11:58 UTC (Fri)
by Hausvib6 (guest, #70606)
[Link] (1 responses)
Yet depending on numerous costly legal defenses can cause a company bleed itself to death, slowly.
I'm starting to think that the law is designed to enrich the lawyers.
Posted May 11, 2011 21:00 UTC (Wed)
by nix (subscriber, #2304)
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Posted May 6, 2011 14:46 UTC (Fri)
by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167)
[Link]
The raiders were perfectly serious. They probably couldn't have taken and held England, but they might easily have done enough damage to make the taxes seem like a small cost by comparison. In fact in some cases records of "danegeld" are for a tax that was used to pay mercenaries to fight invading Danes... I doubt the taxpayer felt one tax more lightly than the other.
Danegeld is now a historical curiosity (resulting in some really cool runestones, check out the Wikipedia page) and one day Software Patents will be too. Meanwhile it may sometimes make sense to pay, even after taking Kipling's warning into account.
Posted May 8, 2011 5:54 UTC (Sun)
by drag (guest, #31333)
[Link]
It's either you deal with the legal system or you give up business. The choice here is not between fighting them versus paying them off.. the choice is to pay them off or cease all business activities.
Posted May 8, 2011 3:37 UTC (Sun)
by drag (guest, #31333)
[Link]
Most people here are not going to like his politics, but this guy is a anti-patent patent attorney. He worked for many years as a 'IP' attorney for various corporations, became a partner in the IP section of a firm, then eventually became a professor.
He is a staunch anti-IP advocate and has written extensively on the subject. His experience as professional working IP attorney makes him fairly unique.
Could be helpful.
Spoken in the true spirit of business and chalk up it up to "the cost of doing business.. These "Ningy" type patents while "cheap" now will add up to one gigantic Pu.
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Wol
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
"...once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane."
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
I'm starting to think that the law is designed to enrich the lawyers.
Well, yes, of course it is. Most legislators are lawyers, after all.
Danegeld
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)
Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)