

He took on a patent troll and won - SG-
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/took+patent+troll/8921261/story.html

======
SeanLuke
I recalled a similar story involving local transit agencies in the US.
Apparently a troll named "ArrivalStar" has been suing local jurisdictions for
having the gall to add bus arrival information to screens at bus stops.

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/03/a-new-low-for-
pat...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/03/a-new-low-for-patent-
trolls-targeting-cash-strapped-cities/)

[http://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/04/16/patent-troll-sues-
trans...](http://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/04/16/patent-troll-sues-transit-
agencies-for-releasing-real-time-transit-info/)

[http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/10977955/patent-trolls-
ta...](http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/10977955/patent-trolls-targeted-
metra-officials-say)

Sure enough, the "Dovden Investments" discussed in this story is just a shell
company for ArrivalStar. See:

[http://arielkatz.org/archives/2823](http://arielkatz.org/archives/2823)

------
Sniperfish
Sounds like they used points similar to Kevin O'Connor's RICO lawsuit:

'Lumen didn't do "any meaningful pre-filing investigation"...he company's
expert witness not only hadn't investigated FindTheBest's services—he'd never
heard of the target company, according to O'Connor.'
([http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/angry-
entrepreneu...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/angry-entrepreneur-
replies-to-patent-troll-with-racketeering-lawsuit/))

Compare to:

'The key to his response is that Dovden's case was made up of off-theshelf
pieces, careless about details and indifferent to exactly what Dunkelman's
BusBuddy app does...' (article)

True Larry Dunkelman's is a Canadian case but it will be interesting to see if
there is consistent value in this line of defense against patent trolls.

------
chris_wot
So that appears to be how you deal with patent trolls. Ignore them, wait till
they file suit, then demand they put up $50,000 surety bond to ensure that if
they lose you will be paid your costs.

I wonder if you can demand this _before_ getting legal advise?

------
kevingadd
It's too bad that the definition of 'won' in these cases is usually 'spent
thousands of dollars on lawyers, that you will never get back because the
troll is a shell company with no actual assets'.

~~~
burkemw3
The shell company owns some right to assert the patent. It may even own the
patent itself. This right is a revenue generating asset. The shell company
should even have records of just how much revenue that asset generates.

Can anyone point me to an instance where an infringement defendant went after
the assertion rights or patent ownership? My search-fu hasn't turned up
anything in the validity or success of this tactic.

~~~
ksherlock
Righthaven (copyrights, not patents) was eventually shut down for lack of
standing since they didn't own the copyrights but only the right to sue over
them.

In the Apple/HTC ITC case, 5 of HTCoogle patents were thrown out over lack of
standing (Google sort of gave them to HTC but retained some control over
them).

