

Ask HN: Is Phonebloks Using Next Generation Copyright/Patent Trolling? - ChikkaChiChi

Phonebloks (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.davehakkens.nl&#x2F;) is an ideadeck web page making the rounds today. It appears to be a page made by a designer pitching a product to nobody in particular. The person has no interest or ability to make the device, they just want people to &#x27;like&#x27; it in hopes it gets made.<p>This is the second such website I&#x27;ve come across this week after trying to see if a tchotchke from &#x27;Doctor Who&#x27; was available for sale.  It wasn&#x27;t, but some guy posted up details about how he wished someone would make one and any interested companies should contact him.<p>If a person or company ran with the idea are they somehow responsible for compensating the people who post things like this?  Is this a new form of poor man&#x27;s copyright or lawsuit trolling?<p>I&#x27;m worried because if I had an idea, I&#x27;d research it first.  If I came across some website that had the same idea I think I would give pause to developing it further because of this.
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hardwaresofton
Pretty sure they would need to file a patent for them to patent troll you.

Patent trolls file ridiculous patents and hope to catch you on a technicality
or bleed you out (and have you settle instead of going to court) -- If these
people didn't put patents on the ideas, then they won't have a leg to stand on
as far as patent trolling goes, right?

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ChikkaChiChi
I believe so, but what about prior art copyrighting?

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hardwaresofton
Well I think if if that case were to hold up in court, I could just go around
and lay all my ideas out somewhere and sue someone if anyone at all tries to
make something.

I'm not a lawyer, but if you were to ask me, I'm pretty sure judges will throw
cases like that out of court

