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Comment by kstrauser | Hacker News Reader

I just sent this through Honeywell's contact page and I mean every word of it:

I'm in the market for a programmable thermostat for my house. I had been considering several units, including yours and one from Nest Labs.

Apparently you've decided that it's more important to batter competitors with the legal system than actually, you know, put your supposed patents to use building a thermostat that your potential customers actually want to buy. You seem to be under the impression that suing other companies over patents on obvious ideas will make your own products look more attractive.

It's clear that you're out of touch with your market. I don't know what unit I'm going to buy for my house, but I can promise you that it won't be a Honeywell thermostat.

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I don't know what unit I'm going to buy for my house, but I can promise you that it won't be a Honeywell thermostat.

Putting aside the patent issue, if you and lots of other people send such emails, aren't you simply making it easier for Honeywell's lawyers to estimate damages owed?

Perhaps not if it can be successfully argued that such damages estimated from the emails would arise out of a boycott action due to predatory legal action?

Nicely done.

Now you get to go out there and research every thermostat manufacturer to find out which ones aren't paying a licensing fee to Honeywell for these (and other) patents.

Link to the contact page, maybe we can automate signed submissions...

Link to the contact page, maybe we can automate signed submissions...

I think there's a very good chance that I've misunderstood your comment, but - for the sake of doubt - please tell me that you're not advocating fraud :)

By "signed" I just meant a way to quickly get a lot of valid submissions. More like a petition. Not trying to bot it. There's a CAPTCHA anyway =)

It's at https://honeywell.com/Pages/contact-us.aspx . I selected that I'm a "Customer", no company, product type "Thermostats", inquiry type "Home Owner".

I don't know what unit I'm going to buy for my house, but I can promise you that it won't be a Honeywell thermostat.

Doesn't matter much, if they are still able to shut down a competitor like Nest legally, especially seeing as millions of people will continue to buy their products.

Better join some action to abolish the stupid patent laws.

Doesn't hurt to do both considering the low cost of both actions.

Is there perhaps an argument for financial activism here? While it wouldn't be super significant, let's say you bought 1000 shares of Honeywell and shorted it today. You continued this type of action for software patent litigation in the future. Eventually it might have the intended effect and actually affect their share price, which might cause these huge companies to think twice.

They aren't going to try to shut down Nest. They'll just try to extract a couple dollars per thermostat in royalties.

Doesn't matter much, if they are still able to shut down a competitor like Nest legally, especially seeing as millions of people will continue to buy their products.

I can't do anything about millions of people, but I can do something about my own buying patterns. I can also tell others why I did so and hope they agree with me.

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