
What Can Small Tech Companies Do About Patent Trolls? - raleighm
https://blogs.findlaw.com/technologist/2018/08/what-can-small-tech-companies-do-about-patent-trolls.html
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fncypants
I am a patent lawyer, and the sentiment from the article is on point. Recent
case decisions have flipped the script for small companies targeted by patent
trolls. The term “Troll” captures many different kinds of patent lawsuits, but
most often now the only trolls willing to sue small companies are looking for
a quick small payday and will not tolerate any suggestion that they have to
put up a real defense of their case on the merits. It can vary, but I have
convinced several trolls to drop their case for small clients for just an
hour’s worth of work. They know when I make an appearance for a client that
they have to put up a fight and will walk away, and if they don’t I have been
successful in several cases getting them to pay the lawyer fees incurred by my
clients. Happy to answer any questions about the range of responses that may
be necessary to defend against this scourge. But I’m happy to report that the
trend is favoring the defendant in these scenarios.

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dshuang
Would you mind providing a way to contact you in your profile? I'm not sure my
questions regarding average cost per case, duration, etc. are appropriate for
this thread. Thanks.

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mcherm
For what it's worth, I suspect that many of us would be interested in
information about average cost per case and average duration for cases where
the defendant is a small company (or small tech company).

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dccoolgai
New idea for a service: I patent troll your startup with an obvious bad
patent. You pay me a very small fee and I lose the case on purpose. On paper
you look like you fight back hard, so no other trolls bother you. Company
name: troll armor.

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gt_
Go right ahead, give it a try. I patented this in ‘98.

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delinka
patent expires this year, yay!

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gt_
Good one haha

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zackbloom
A fun read about what Cloudflare did to a patent troll:
[https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2017/09/2...](https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/fortune/2017/09/21/cloudflare-
pays-first-15000-in-quest-to-kill-blackbird-patent-troll)

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prewett
The above article describes the case, but not the resolution, which was that
the judge invalidated the patent [1]. Blackbird said it would appeal, but
Google doesn't bring up anything after the initial decision.

Personally I thought the best was Newegg sueing the patent troll that dropped
their case. "They started the litigation, it would be irresponsible not to
finish it." Unfortunately, the case seems to have been terminated several
months later, so I'm guessing it didn't work. [2]

[1] [https://blog.cloudflare.com/bye-bye-
blackbird/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/bye-bye-blackbird/)

[2]
[https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/10583332/Rosewill_I...](https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/10583332/Rosewill_Inc_v_Minero_Digital,_LLC)
(see upper right)

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quizotic
Is there any protection to be had by a corporate shell game? Suppose I put my
technology assets in one corporation, my revenue and monetary assets in a 2nd
corporation, and my customer facing presence in a 3rd corporation. The patent
trolls descend on the customer facing presence, which has no substantial
technology or monetary assets. If it goes into bankruptcy, I lose brand, but
can restart elsewhere and preserve my tech and monetary assets ?

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YPCrumble
That is genius and exactly what real estate developers do in Philadelphia.
They have one shell company for their brand and a separate shell company for
each development. If they have 100 separate houses to develop, they may have
100 separate shell companies. This way they close the shell company as soon as
they finish a project so that any lingering issues in the community have no
recourse.

Say they build a house next to yours and tear up your roof in the process
causing it to leak. You need to sue them ASAP or their company will no longer
exist in a month or two so you have nothing to sue.

I’d love to hear why LLC’s are a good idea; for the most part they seem like a
scheme to avoid responsibility and evade taxes for rich people.

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1123581321
I can’t comment on the balance of LLC use, but the good idea is that someone
who cannot afford large personal losses can start a business that won’t ruin
them if it fails. Additionally, the personal tax and business paperwork is
simpler than with a corporation.

A bunch of the small businesses that sell at local city markets are LLCs, for
example.

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clearwater82
For the love of God someone sell patent troll insurance yo startups - trust me
there is a lot of money to be made here by diversifying the risk.

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bostondenver
I read that these insurance companies are sometimes patent trolls themselves,
basically collecting ‘protection’ money

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andy_518
It can also be the other way around: Startup files a patent to potentially
take down competing companies (big or small) or open-source projects:

Ref:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15090927](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15090927)

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dano
In my experience, settle early, settle often keeps your small business on
track. While settling seemed wrong to me on principle (the patent was absurd),
the cost of fighting far exceeded what my company could afford. I got on the
phone with our corporate outside council and the plaintiff to explore our
options. Their first question was "Are you a $100 or $200 million dollar per
year company?" Uh, yeah, we think you have the wrong idea... In the end we
settled for $50K, the equivalent of about two months legal fees to fight the
suit. In the end it was the right decision as we bought certainty. Even ten
years later this settlement bugs me, but it was the right thing to do.

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ttoinou
What about defending itself against patent issues in general ? Patent trolls
are only a degeneration of an already-bad system

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danial
The article links to an entrepreneur.com article that talks about anti-troll
alliances. I had my business join one of the mentioned organizations
UnifiedPatents a while ago. It was free for me (smaller companies and
startups) and the on-boarding process was pretty straightforward.

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q3k
4\. Not be based in the US.

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mcherm
Unless you also do not sell in the US this won't help.

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jimnotgym
Well it could _help_ but not make you immune.

1\. You have diversified your risk, so even if you cannot sell into the US
market anymore, you may still have a company that can sell into different
parts of the world.

2\. Even if you lose and a face a large fee, you may be able to just retreat
from the US, leaving the US statutory entities to insolvency, whilst
protecting your IP.

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baybal2
>What Can Small Tech Companies Do About Patent Trolls?

Move to China

