LWN: Comments on "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)

nix — Wed, 11 May 2011 21:00:55 +0000

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.

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

drag — Sun, 08 May 2011 05:54:25 +0000

>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.

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.

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

drag — Sun, 08 May 2011 03:37:23 +0000

Just a FYI,

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.

http://www.stephankinsella.com/about/

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

elanthis — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:17:51 +0000

Bilski didn't rule anything at all related to software. The commentary was literally "this ain't a software case so we ain't ruling on software patents here."

Danegeld

tialaramex — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:46:13 +0000

To be fair - although Kipling tells a good yarn, the reality is that many places did pay Danegeld, and despite that today Denmark doesn't send raiders to demand more silver.

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.

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

Wol — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:28:10 +0000

Well, SCOTUS ruled that mathematical patents are not allowed. They also ruled that software patents MAY be allowed, IF they are different from mathematical patents.

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,
Wol

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

Hausvib6 — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:58:41 +0000

Exactly, and furthermore another patent trolls will come once they hear about a company which willing to pay.

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.

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

Priscus — Fri, 06 May 2011 07:50:12 +0000

I think of Kipling's Dane-Geld...
"...once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane."

Pay them once, they know where to come back to.

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

wahern — Thu, 05 May 2011 22:19:51 +0000

Just because they pay off trolls doesn't mean they're not fighting the system by lobbying Congress. But you can't fight the patent system through the courts. We lost that fight with Bilski. We saw how far SCOTUS was willing to reel in the system, and it wasn't nearly far enough to rid us of the plague of software patents. They rejected a ruling that would have done exactly that, and more-or-less stated explicitly that software patents are here to stay. So that means that Red Hat isn't conceding anything by looking to their bottom line on a per claim basis.

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.

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

stijn — Thu, 05 May 2011 21:24:46 +0000

I have not read the fine article, but the summary simply suggests adherence to the principle "pick your battles", which is plain common sense.

Red Hat CEO hates patent trolls, but says sometimes you just have to pay up (Network World)

stumbles — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:54:25 +0000

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.