GitHub is my copilot

Posted Jul 21, 2021 14:15 UTC (Wed) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)
In reply to: GitHub is my copilot by gfernandes
Parent article: GitHub is my copilot

Suing TinyStartup is hard work for pretty much no return. Suing Microsoft is like buying a lottery ticket. You're very, very likely to lose, but if you win, it'll be fantastic. Also, most patent infringement defendants end up settling, and MSFT's threshold for settling is higher than a smaller company's would be. Unless MSFT sees the patent or the troll as an existential threat, it'll probably make the correct business decision and just pay to make the problem go away.

GitHub is my copilot

Posted Jul 22, 2021 4:42 UTC (Thu) by rgmoore (✭ supporter ✭, #75) [Link]

It's not obvious that paying off patent trolls is the right business move for a big company like Microsoft. It would probably be the right move if there were only one patent troll out there, but if there are a lot of them- and there are- they'll wind up paying again and again. It might be cheaper in the long run to spend the money on lawyers and make an example of the first few who try it. Sending the message that suing your company will just result in massive legal bills and an invalidated patent should discourage other trolls who are thinking about suing you, resulting in less spending overall.