
Startup Won't Give in to Motivational Health Messaging's $35k Patent Demand - DiabloD3
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/startup-wont-give-motivational-health-messagings-35000-patent-demand
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YeGoblynQueenne
Oh wow. That lady, Rachael Lamkin- Motiv's lawyer in this. I wouldn't want to
get on her bad side:

 _Finally, a word about tone: this letter is strongly worded, and contains
more vigor than is usually employed in legal communications. But here the
language and tone are intentional. Motiv is a small start-up, with limited
resources, working like mad to create something helpful and innovative. Motiv
is also a patent holder that respects valid patents. But MHM’s patent is
neither innovative or valid, and should not be asserted, especially against
good companies trying to do good things. And on a personal note, as you (Ed)
know, I have repeatedly defended small companies, and the terrified people
working for said companies, from S &T. I have seen the harm caused by S&T’s
business model first-hand. Please counsel your clients to rethink this
course._

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iliketosleep
Classic case of a playground bully relying on fear and intimidation to steal
lunch money. The EFF is doing a great job of showing instances where people
stand up to he bully and more often than not win, which in turn empowers
others to do the same. People become less intimidated, and the bully begins to
lose his key weapon.

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axel205
I think the root of this problem is the US patent office that keeps approving
this ambiguous and silly patents. Is there anything being done to stop this
kind of patents from going through?

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yock
Why not abolish the patent system altogether? Don't allow private companies to
use government force to monopolize ideas in the first place.

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URSpider94
Patents were created because we believe that there’s a win-win to providing
limited term protection for new inventions. There are fields, like IC design,
where lack of IP protection would halt innovation pretty quickly - nobody is
going to invest tens or hundreds of millions to build a new chip if a
competitor can copy it in a matter of months.

That said, it’s a bargain made for the public good, and we should always keep
that in mind. It’s pretty clear that there are abuses of the patent system, we
need to think about how we can modify it to minimize those abuses while
protecting valuable research.

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greglindahl
I've only founded one startup that made a chip, and patents didn't help (or
hinder) us at all.

Another example would be Intel: you're saying that Intel would stop designing
chips if there were no more patents?

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guzik
Our business model is based on similar mechanics (tracking activity through
our device + performance-based suggestions). It's too soon, but wondering when
they point their eyes on us...

From the article: It provides examples such as (...) messages like “do not
fear” and “God is with you” when a “user enters a dangerous neighborhood.”

I would go crazy with those messages poping-out all the time, here in Poland.

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diego_moita
Meanwhile, in Shenzhen no one gives a fuck about patents.

I wonder how patent abuse and no patents will compare in the long run.

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mncharity
Not my field, but I've heard it suggested that China-style government
corruption is better for innovation than US-style. When influence buying is
less pervasive, more concentrated in large incumbents, the resulting
regulatory capture, and associated intellectual policy (patents and
copyright), places more of its anti-competitive emphasis on reducing the
threat of innovation.

One of the concerns about TPP, and especially its investor-state dispute
settlement (sort of regulatory-capture insurance), was globally
institutionalizing the less innovationally-productive style.

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narrator
In China you know who is in charge. In the U.S you get all sorts of weird laws
and policies and it's all a bunch of proxies implementing them. There's no one
to negotiate with because the people setting the priorities and agendas of the
proxies are hidden and the only solution is to lobby your own proxies to move
around on the chessboard.

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retSava
While they didn't pay the $35k, it couldn't have been cheap. I wonder how much
was spent on lawyer fees to produce the documents presented in TFA. All of
them thoroughly researched (to me, a layman) and presented. Looks expensive.

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spodek
Who's to say the charges would stop at $35k? Others may try to extort them too
if they appear willing to pay.

Signaling to the market that you won't settle may prevent future problems.

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intrasight
That is historically the risk if giving in to extortion.

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linkmotif
This is why I love the EFF. The EFF and ACLU give me hope that all is not
lost. RIP JPB.

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gohbgl
There are also tons of "good" patents that prevent startups from innovating.

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JoshMnem
It's hard to believe that patents are given for very obvious ideas that many
people must have thought about independently. I've had similar ideas (only not
based specifically on location), and wouldn't consider them patentable.

