
Apple to Pay $21.7 million to Patent Troll - J3L2404
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/10/apple-drops-appeal-of-21-7-million-patent-suit-against-opti/
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smalter
The article linked to is a summary of this article, which I think is better,
and has less of this I-don't-know-what's-going-on-but-I-don't-think-it's-right
language:
[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/07/apple_drops_ap...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/07/apple_drops_appeal_of_21_7_million_opti_patent_suit.html).

Still, the appleinsider article says that the case was brought in the Eastern
District of Texas which is "notorious for catering to patent trolls." Yet, the
case was settled the day before argument in the USCA for the Fed. Circuit
which is the consolidated court of appeals for patent cases. That suggests to
me that OPTI had a defensible case.

There is the broader question of whether our patent system is broken, but
there's nothing that immediately stands out as egregious in this case based on
the facts that i read here and in the Bloomberg article (vs. the inflammatory
language used in the linked article and the subject of the OP).

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jacquesm
If you live by the sword you should not be surprised if you are either hurt or
killed by other people's swords.

~~~
tptacek
This settlement was %.1 of Apple's Q4 revenue. Exercise: figure out what %.1
of your own top-line revenue is for Q4. Now, look at the number, disregard the
percentage. How big a deal would that number be to you?

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atomical
"It seems like each week we hear of another company that has decided to roll
the dice in court to try to make a profit off of an idea, regardless of how
obvious an idea it might be, because "they had it first." I'm no lawyer, and I
don't even play one on TV, but it seems like this sort of thing was almost
unheard of even a few years ago."

This makes me cringe when compared with the beginning of the article, "I have
only a vague idea of what that even means." It's so damn obvious you can't
even understand it!

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wccrawford
Think maybe Apple will put some money towards fixing the patent system now? I
keep waiting for the big names to really start pushing for reform, since they
are only ever hurt by patents and never helped by them. At least, as far as I
can tell.

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e40
I think this sum is tiny compared to what they are paid. So, no, they won't do
anything to fix it.

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jasonlotito
Especially considering they are playing the patent game and suing people as
well.

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gst
Why should this company be any more of a patent troll than Apple, or any other
of the companies that register trivial patents and then sue other companies?

