
Fatdoor Founder Sues Benchmark Capital, Saying It Stole His Idea - ssclafani
http://allthingsd.com/20111111/fatdoor-founder-sues-benchmark-capital-saying-it-stole-his-idea-for-nextdoor/
======
jaredstenquist
AllThingsD needs a lesson in basic grammar. \-------- "Fatdoor founder Raj
Abhyanker on Thursday filed a complaint with against Benchmark Capital for
interference"

with against?

\--------

..."agreed at least informally to advice Fatdoor."

advise?

\------

Besides the poor grammar, this case will be difficult to win without some
strong evidence. I'm not sure he'll have access to the discussions between
Benchmark and the current company called NextDoor.

~~~
nikcub
> I'm not sure he'll have access to the discussions between Benchmark and the
> current company called NextDoor.

the crazy thing now is that he may get to discovery where he can put Benchmark
through a process where they have to hand over emails, etc.

From a scan of the filing, it seems he is really grasping at straws, but that
doesn't mean that he will not cause hell to Benchmark and those named in the
interim.

~~~
socialnetworker
No, he will definitely get access to their emails. Benchmark and Nextdoor by
law has to sequester and preserve their emails once sued. Besides, it seems
like he already has it, exact emails are quoted throughout the complaint from
benchmark and the CTO of Facebook, who was an EIR at the time. If those emails
are true, the benchmark/nextdoor are screwed.

------
SomeCallMeTim
Considering I had almost exactly the same idea as "NextDoor", and that the
name almost suggests itself, I don't think there's any merit to the lawsuit.

To me anyway it was an obvious thing to try, though I haven't tried it out to
see if they "stole" all of my ideas, or only the basic "connect with your
neighbors" part. :)

~~~
bond
From a poster there:

"Perhaps you did not read the facts, this is no ordinary case. The name
'nextdoor' is in the first Fatdoor patent application, which was private at
the time of disclosure! Benchmark agreed in writing to confidentiality, not
once, but twice. Clearly, something fishy going on here.

U.S. Patent Application number 2007/0218900 A1 titled “MAP BASED NEIGHBORHOOD
SEARCH AND COMMUNITY CONTRIBUTION” (See Exhibit 4) on which the name
“Nextdoor.com” is clearly associated as the domain name intended to be used by
Fatdoor, Inc. (page 21, col. 1, paragraph [0236])"

~~~
nikcub
that poster sure does sound like somebody involved in the case

------
socialnetworker
An old Ycombinator post from 1300 days ago, prescient?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=164904>

mattmaroon 1305 days ago | link | parent

I have to agree there. Fatdoor raised themselves enough to be able to try
something else when Idea A looked to be a dud. And exit strategies don't even
come into play yet. Also, their new idea seems to be a logical extension of
(and possibly an improvement on) the old one. If Idea B works they will be
fine. If not, they'll be no less or no more bankrupt than if they raised less
money earlier. If some omniscient person told me my idea was going to turn out
a dud, I'd want more money rather than less.

------
nethsix
Perhaps, the best way to fight against someone stealing your idea is to
release your code as open source.

~~~
nethsix
If you down-voted something perhaps you'd care to give your thoughts, at
least, instead of hiding out there.

------
jphackworth
Good luck with that. Has there ever been a case of successfully suing a VC for
idea theft?

