The author is confused. If a legal action is moved from preliminary hearing to trial, by definition it's not frivolous. This doesn't mean it isn't really frivolous by some common-sense test, only that the sitting judge determined that the issue merited a court trial. On that basis it's not frivolous, and woe betide the person who suggests that the judge acted wrongly in his court.
Truly frivolous legal actions (on which everyone agrees) aren't tried, they're cast out in preliminary hearings.
> After a trial before a jury, we managed to prove that we didn’t infringe and that the asserted claims from the patent were invalid.
Invalidating a patent in court doesn't make the proceeding frivolous -- all the plaintiff needs to do is claim that he sincerely believed in the patent and in his claims. A frivolous proceeding is one in which a plaintiff knowingly and deliberately wastes the court's time with actions that have no substance.
Also, to base a judgment about frivolousness on the outcome of a trial is to suggest that all losing plaintiffs are acting frivolously on the basis of the outcome.
Don't get me wrong -- I think the present patent system stinks to high heaven. But trying to call some patent proceedings "frivolous" just won't work.
What needs to change is not how the law is enforced, but the law itself.
Truly frivolous legal actions (on which everyone agrees) aren't tried, they're cast out in preliminary hearings.
> After a trial before a jury, we managed to prove that we didn’t infringe and that the asserted claims from the patent were invalid.
Invalidating a patent in court doesn't make the proceeding frivolous -- all the plaintiff needs to do is claim that he sincerely believed in the patent and in his claims. A frivolous proceeding is one in which a plaintiff knowingly and deliberately wastes the court's time with actions that have no substance.
Also, to base a judgment about frivolousness on the outcome of a trial is to suggest that all losing plaintiffs are acting frivolously on the basis of the outcome.
Don't get me wrong -- I think the present patent system stinks to high heaven. But trying to call some patent proceedings "frivolous" just won't work.
What needs to change is not how the law is enforced, but the law itself.