Ha there so stupid saying blu ray was theres whats next that elephants belong to the north pole bloodly idiots. And like I said in a other post reguarding sueing crush the cunts till there poor!
thing is though .. elephants do actually belong to the north pole :S
13 years ago
Fri Mar 11 2011, 03:05AM
No one wins in patent lawsuits... except the lawyers. Everyone else....loosers.
The company that rightfully or wrongly sues is spending tons of cash and potentially damaging their reputation on the gamble that a jury of 12 people that might or might not know that electricity exists will rule in their favor. Even if the company wins, appeals and other legal maneuvers usually drag the case out over a decade, which by the time its finally brought to a close, technology has marched on and the original patent is probably worthless.
The company that gets sued, rightly or wrongly, has a mountain of legal issues and legal bills to wade through. Most give up and just settle out of court to make that go away, and if they were really guilty of patent infringement, they will just do it again if they ended up making any money after the settlement and lawyers have been paid. This deters very few shady companies from infringing. Companies wrongly sued often win, only to have not actually "won" any thing other than the right to go on with business as usual... and a mountain of legal bills, which might or might not ever get paid by the party that sued them originally (many patent trolls are run from shell companies that fold if they loose in court and don't have to pay their fines).
And finally, the biggest looser among everyone, the consumer. You and I. We loose every time a patent fight breaks out. Who do you think pays for those lawyers? You do. You pay a lawyer tax on everything you buy that is covered by a patent. That PS3 you paid a f*ck-ton of money for? If there were no patents, it would probably cost about 4 dollars (I'm just guessing here).
The original intent of the patent system is to give a limited monopoly on inventions to promote more invention and benefit the public at large. Several founding fathers in the US recognized how dangerous a monopoly can be, and were very reluctant to get behind the idea. They put tough restrictions on even obtaining a patent. The bar was set high just to even qualify for the patent (create a model, submit, appear before the board, etc). Now, all you have to do is have an "idea" in your head, write it down, and boom... patent. Stupidly obvious stuff like "push a single button to buy something online instead of 3 buttons". Patented. No one else is allowed to have a single button purchase scheme or Amazon takes their ass to court. Thanks Amazon, you just made every other site I shop at that much more difficult to use. I lose out yet again as I push 4 buttons to finally purchase something which, 50 percent of the cost goes straight into patent lawyers pockets.
Agreed. The patent should protect very unique ideas. Not tiny insignificant ideas.
