Comment by coolj | Hacker News Reader

Comment by coolj | Hacker News Reader

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It looks like they are taking a different approach to the problem (though the bill still hasn't passed yet):

> The next legislative effort will likely center around what is known as the SHIELD Act, which has been introduced by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon) and Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). This bill would require plaintiffs to pay defendants’ legal costs if the suit is unsuccessful. -- http://www.rackspace.com/blog/patent-trolls-make-them-pay/

While this is a less drastic strategy, I think it's a more realistic one. It would have an immediate, deterrent effect on all trolls--big and small--because there would be direct, legal repercussion for their actions. This way, you don't need new infrastructure and new funding to support a watchdog group, and nobody can "slip through the cracks"--trolls paying for all the costs of a failed suit is just part of the system they are using to file the suits. This may not prevent the "big players" from throwing their weight around with patent litigation, but it would certainly help the current situation quite a bit, imo.

Here's the relevant text of the bill:

> [I]n an action disputing the validity or alleging the infringement of a computer hardware or software patent, upon making a determination that the party alleging the infringement of the patent did not have a reasonable likelihood of succeeding, the court may award the recovery of full costs to the prevailing party, including reasonable attorney's fees [...] -- http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr6245ih/pdf/BILLS-112...

[EDIT: Link to bill wasn't including the trailing colon ':', linked to PDF]

This will not work. If I don't have the money to mount a defense it doesn't really matter because there will not be a trial. I would have to reach a licensing agreement or close-up shop. This is yet another bullshit law with 23 different ways to circumvent it.

A better version of the law would have the troll pay for legal fees in advance. A bona Fidel estimate of fees is made and the troll has to deposit this amount with the court. If they loose, the court can pay the defendant out of that fund. Now you still have to have the money to defend yourself, but at least you know they won't be able to file bankruptcy and walk away. It also increases the immediate cost of troll operations exponentially.

The next step would be to reduce defendant fees to zero.

The next step would be for the patent office to become involved in some capacity and re-examine for invalidation.

Every time you sue someone for patent infringement you have to first PAY FOR a full expedited patent invalidation trial. In other words, you are free to use your patent to make stuff but if you want to sue somebody we will first re-examine it's validity. Tis is fair. The government granted the monopoly. Now the government is obligated to protect us from this monopoly by re-examining the grant when it is used to cause financial harm. Only if the patent passes the re-examination process is the trial allowed to take place. Every time you attack someone you face invalidation and having to make a huge deposit with the courts to cover all costs. That ought to slow them down.

Anyhow, these are random ideas from the vantage point of a non-lawyer engineer. I am sure they are flawed in a thousand ways. I truly don't think government is really going to fix this mess.

This will just cause the trolls to set up one shell corp per suit. If they lose, they just declare bankruptcy and vanish.

There needs to be a personal, professional cost to the attorney who represents the troll. Trolling doesn't work if you can't find a lawyer willing to take the risk on your bogus "on teh interwebs" patent.

They'd have to transfer the patent to the shell company, which would then be transferred to the winning defendant in any bankruptcy. So at least they'd lose the patent they sued with.

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