> I hope Gnome is able to take a Newegg approach here and kill the patent.
How do you propose paying for that? It is fantastically expensive.
How do you propose paying for that? It is fantastically expensive.
I'd be happy if someone held me to that.
I could already see this story making headlines in pretty much every tech news outlet there is. They'd get a few thousand individual donations for sure.
Or will some of the money be recovered if the case is won? Thinking about it, wouldn't it be fair if you were more than compensated in case you won a lawsuit filed against you?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_rule_(attorney%27s_fee...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_rule_(attorney's_fees...
Patent trolls obviously act in bad faith.
Wow, that's all? That's actually really encouraging, if true. I would have assumed it was millions.
We have to start getting more aggressive in these scenarios. If the patent isn't killed, they're just going to turn around and sue someone else with it. So if we want a world where small players can compete with the likes of Microsoft or Facebook, we need to retaliate against trolls who go after small players.
Honestly I wish more countries would take New Zealand's approach and just outright ban all software patents. There is no reason any software patent should exist.
But if every one of their threats resulted in someone dragging them into an expensive fight over whether or not that patent was valid, maybe eventually they'd just go bankrupt from the legal fees.
Essentially, use their own strategy against them. Whenever they sue someone, they have two choices: roll over and let the patent get invalidated, or fight an expensive lawsuit against a party that refuses to settle.
* The lawyers got paid so much money there is no more money left to pay the receptionist and the power company and the copier rental.
* The troll is protected from paying any damages to the legal team that defeated them.
So the lawyers/executives suck up all the money and move on, leaving a wake of destruction behind them. In many cases, that should be considered criminal.
And the owners both bankrupted and jailed, or they'll just do it again.
Nonetheless I'm throwing some money into the pot, hopefully it is used to fight this troll case, which thankfully may be so facially ridiculous that it is thrown out.
I'd happily donate to a legal fund to fight this lawsuit though.
GNOME Foundation could probably just use GitLab.com, it wouldn't take a full time staff if their focus was infrastructure. It seems like the GNOME Foundation is predisposed with gaining institutional power over the symbols of GNOME, to egoistically control the community.
oh, that American health insurance website.
Put me down for $20 if it comes up.
I would personally donate hundreds each year if such organization existed, patent trolls are my worst software nightmare.
Revenue (2014) - $667,370
Is there a precedent?
Are they after the usual troll thing, a quick settlement less than lawyer fees to fight it?
Does nonprofit status of the victim become relevant?
Donations are not necessarily consistent over years. You'll also have expanses.
(I just donated $50 - good luck guys)