Hello, Friends! Back again!
Now I will discuss another Ted Talk. Overall, these are super fascinating, and I am glad we had the opportunity to discuss them in class. I will now look at Drew Curtis and his discussion of patent trolls.
Last year, Drew’s company was sued along with MSN & Yahoo by a patent troll- Gooseberry Natural Resources. They owned a patent for news releases via email. It may seems strange, but it can be patented. Take something that is already done and patent it. The problem is that the mechanisms are obscure and most of these lawsuits are settled and disclosed.
However, his company was not in violation of this patent. But when you are sued by a patent troll, you have to prove that you don’t infringe on the patent they are suing you with but this takes so long. It costs $2 million and takes 18 months- and this is the best case scenario. No companies infringed on this patent but they still settled. They settled because it was cheaper. It would also constitute major distraction from your company.
When it finally came around to the discovery phase- Drew asked Gooseberry Natural Resources to send screenshots of his company actually infringing on this patent. However, no such screenshots existed- but all of the sudden they wanted to settle. And wanted to close it out ASAP. His response was “NOTHING”. He didn’t have high hopes for that outcome, but THEY SETTLED! There is no non-disclosure agreement on this case because he took it off.
He learned three things: don’t fight the patent, fight the infringement. Second, make it clear that you have no money or you would rather spend money for your attorney then giving it to them. Thirdly, Make sure you tell them you make this process as annoying and painful as possible- it is generally their policy but use it on them.
Comes down to one thing- don’t negotiate with terrorists (in his words). He says they have done more damage- $500 billion to be exact- to our economy than many other pressing issues. Although, there isn’t a simple solution or a solution- he does have an idea- just do the same!
Overall, it was a very entertaining and funny talk and it was good to learn that in some cases you can have power in these situations.
Hi Gabrielle (Gabby? Gabs? G?)!
ReplyDeleteI like your coverage of Curtis' talk and agree that his hardline approach to dealing with patent trolls could be very effective. However, what about companies that don't have that kind of money? Is there a way that they could make this work as well? Nice post though - thanks!
Hi Gabrielle,
ReplyDeleteGood job doing a thorough analysis of the TedTalk and adding in your own opinions. Great!
Great post Gabrielle. The hardline approach is in interesting topic. There are drawbacks from it though and I think you did a good job analyzing both sides of it.
ReplyDeleteHey Gaby, thanks for covering this video! It would have been awesome to hear more of your opinions.
ReplyDeleteHey Gabby,
ReplyDeleteI really learned a lot from your video and great post!
Thanks for posting this I found it very interesting and your analysis was great. Patent trolls are a very serious threat so I enjoyed watching the ted talk.
ReplyDeleteHi Gabby! I really like your post on patent trolls, and I agree with Drew's and your frustration on how his company was sued along with MSN & Yahoo by a patent troll! Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Gabby!
ReplyDeleteI really loved your summary of the Ted Talk and how much your vlog contributed to your post as a whole! How Drew as able to get away from the persistent patent trolls is an inspiring story!
Hey Gabby!
ReplyDeleteGreat summary of patent trolls! Awesome examples; I enjoyed the read.
Best
Hey Gabby,
ReplyDeleteYou've got me thinking a lot about the nature of patents. It seems like a lot of the time people just file patents because of money, not because of the idea or machine they've been working on for years and years and been putting so much time and love into. That's kind of a twisted way to go about things. Thanks so much for the post it's really got me thinking!
Hello Gabby,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting TED talk because it showed how the little guy can actually fight back against these patent trolls instead of just pay out the fees and move on. Gooseberry Natural Resources was a NPE who was out to get their money but he didn't flinch nor negotiate with terrorists so he won the case fair and square due to lack of evidence. Good info. Thanks
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ReplyDeleteHi Gabby! Great jobs!
ReplyDeleteGood job summarizing the Ted Talk and pointing out he key aspects of it in a concise way. I also liked how you incorporated your own point of view into the speaker's points. A suggestion is that you could go more in-depth in abstracting out your points to other things we touched on in class. Overall, good job!
Hi Gabby,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really thought you did a great job with summarizing the talk and going over the main points of the talk. I appreciated how you summarized the three things that Drew learned: don’t fight the patent, fight the infringement, make it clear that there is no money to be gained, and lastly, to make sure to convey that the process will be as annoying as possible. I agree with you that overall, it was definitely an entertaining and funny talk!
Best,
Jessica
Hi Gabby,
ReplyDeleteGreat job detailed the TED talk given by Drew Curtis regarding the patent troll case. I believe your blog post was very detailed and organized, and I loved how comprehensive your analysis was! Keep up the great work in these blog posts -- I really appreciate the time you put into these posts!
Best,
Anish
Hi Gabby,
ReplyDeleteGreat post here. It really helped me learn a lot about Fark as a company as well. Funny how he was able to avoid persecution on a definition litigation. bets of luck!