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Comment by zmmmmm | Hacker News Reader

Such a depressing situation. I shudder to think of such a letter arriving to my small (tiny) business. And yet I know it could happen any time. There's simply no way for me to avoid it - I can't possibly anticipate what bogus patent might be thrown at me, it may even be nothing to do with my business. It would probably be game over, shut down, years of hard work down the drain. And even then, I worry that they would sue for damages from past sales, so I may still be screwed.

How do others deal with this risk? Just ignore it and hope for the best? Is it still statistically low enough chance that that is a reasonable thing to do? Incorporate and protect assets so if you are sued you can at least back out without personal financial devastation?

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You should be incorporating anyway. It's a very cheap form of personal liability insurance.

Beware, IANAL. Yes, incorporate. Then, if the business isn't worth much and it's just you, ignore any patent trolls. In the unlikely event any take you to court, don't show up or otherwise waste your money on the suit, and if they win then continue to ignore them. In the worst case you go out of business and start another business with the same technology.

Ignoring a properly filed lawsuit is pretty much the dumbest thing you can do. If they win by default (which is what happens if you ignore it) they can still successfully come after assets.

It's not the dumbest thing you can do when acting on it costs more. They cannot come after your personal assets in the case I described, and the business is not worth much. They are smart enough to not spend more money than they can seize in assets, so it's unlikely to happen.

No - it is the dumbest thing you can do. They can win by default... you lose... you don't get to be 're-heard'

Yes, you lose, but less than you'd lose if you fight it.

Are you sure you're a lawyer, as you've claimed elsewhere? I have strong doubts given the way you debate and write.

As a lawyer you should know that (at least in the US) relief from a default judgment is available. Such relief requires a showing of good cause, but the standard for "good cause" doesn't appear to be especially high.

a lawyer and owner of a tech patent - not a troll- http://patents.justia.com/inventor/peter-a-groverman

And so you are one of them. You're asking software developers like us to cut deals with people like you in order to avoid litigation.

It seems to me that the only reason you frequent HN is to find any potential startups that might be using a system remotely resembling what you described in your patent, so that you could sue them. Pathetic.

That patent is a fucking joke. You didn't invent anything, and the claims section reads like a parody, buzzword combination without thought or insight.

So you want to profiteer on a broken system? Cool. But don't hang out here, handing out advice and pretending that you're anything but part of the problem.

So, you invented rewards points in 2012....

Wow, you actually are, albeit an inactive one! Well, when I'm wrong I'm wrong. I'm surprised you don't debate better though because every lawyer I've known has been excellent at debating!

The fact you're a patent troll with a software patent for an "innovation" that (according to this comment's sibling comments) is super trivial, obvious, and certainly not new puts your perspective into perspective! I hope it gets invalidated!

As a point of note, I'm not clicking on that link so I can remain ignorant of that patent. I hear that's the best course of action for developers ... just in case!

Also, I just watched your TED application video: people sometimes go to the US with empty suitcases for the purposes of shopping because it's cheaper to buy the same or similar products in the US than it is to buy them locally. More importantly, it's fun. They also do the same in other countries too!

Yeah, so patents like this are exactly the problem.

You could go with an LLC instead of incorporating. There's less paperwork involved.

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