

Nintendo acquires "troll's" patent portfolio after legal victory - bane
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-acquires-troll-s-patent-portfolio-after-legal-victory/1100-6417060/

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josephagoss
Come on! IA Labs built similar tech and met with Nintendo before the wii
remote was announced, if I was in their shoes I would sue too.

Unfortunately Nintendo had already created the tech and had evidence, so IA
Labs run themselves into the ground.

I would not label IA Labs a troll, thats not fair and misrepresents what was
going on.

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Jormundir
IA labs developed their own technology and weren't just suing because they
owned a patent, but because they thought their competitive advantage gained
from development was being infringed upon. So they aren't a patent troll.

This case does, however, seem to be a solid win for reasonable patent law
enforcement. The precedence from this appears to be: if you over-step or over
attack using your patent portfolio, you'll pay a big price. Hopefully this
will help those defending legal disputes with real patent trolls moving
forward.

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iwwr
This will merely make trolls create shell companies for each individual
lawsuit. If a shell loses a lawsuit (i.e. patent found invalid), the winner
can just pick up a lot of nothing.

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aptwebapps
Don't some do this already? However, the corporate veil can be pierced - it's
not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

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girvo
Yep, and I think that if NPE's annoy the courts too much, that's exactly what
you'll see happening.

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egeozcan
A patent troll is a company with the sole purpose of, well, patent trolling
(Collecting patents, waiting for a successful target and suing them for
profit, not for keeping competitive advantage)

In this case, I don't see that. They may be called over-aggressive, evil even
but not patent trolls.

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paul9290
It's pretty bad that this whole patents are evil moniker/sentiment has risen
in the past few years. Seems to be great for page views!

Not everyone with a patent is a troll, rather many are the little guy who were
not able to win the race because A) they don't have enough resources or B)
they couldn't rally enough troops to get behind them.

Thus a patent is a way to stake a claim and protect their invention. If it's
worth something then others will copy it and due to sheer luck make it a
success. While you the inventor are left with an empty bag and oh a patent
that you can try and use to be rewarded for your invention.

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nova
> Not everyone with a patent is a troll, rather many are the little guy who
> were not able to win the race because A) they don't have enough resources or
> B) they couldn't rally enough troops to get behind them

In other words, the patent system benefits big companies with big lawyer
armies and trolls with nothing to lose, and is useless for the little inventor
who doesn't have the muscle to fight the legal war if someone copies his
precious invention but now also have to worry to be the one being sued because
of some obvious patent one can infringe just by breathing.

But let's keep the fantasy that patents protect the little guy after all.

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jmaygarden
Is the patent troll moniker appropriate in this case? Wasn't IA Labs actually
building and trying to sell similar products?

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eloff
Not really a patent troll. Too aggressive in defending their patents, yes, but
will within their rights to try. Especially as it appeared to them that their
ideas had been ripped off after they pitched them to Nintendo.

