The idea behind this scam is to file suites they fully know they would
loose in court. A messy legal tactic, but
hardly a problem with the U.S. I.P. laws (which are far better than most
others).
Brian Chase wrote:
On Wed, 6 Nov 2002, Bob Shannon wrote:
Lastly, in business its not generall a good idea
to patent something
new, unless your about to commercialize it at the same time. A
years-old, but otherwise valid patent is very hard to defend if you have
not exercised your I.P. rights.
It can in effect become an abandon property. Someone later comes along
and makes commercial use of it, and they gain a lot of legal advantage
should you choose to enforce your disused patent long after the fact.
You cannot 'lay in wait' for a patent voilator to become succesful, and
then try to grab the gold.
Well... perhaps "in theory" but that doesn't seem to be the case
in practice. At least it isn't wrt the farcical U.S. IP laws and patent
process.
http://www.youmaybenext.com/
-> If you own or operate an e-commerce web site then you are us. And
-> you need to know that a company in San Diego, Pangea Intellectual
-> Properties (PanIP LLC) is suing companies all across the country.
-> They claim that if you use graphical and textural information on a
-> video screen for purposes of making a sale, then you are infringing
-> on their patent. US Patent No 5,576,951.
->
-> And if you accept information to conduct automatic financial
-> transactions via a telephone line & video screen, you're infringing
-> on their patent. US Patent No. 6,289,319
-brian.