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Rambus Found Guilty of Fraud
Joby Walker writes: "The jury in the Rambus v. Infineon case has found Rambus guilty of fraud in regard to their actions within JEDEC. Infineon was awarded $3.5M in punitive damages, but that has been reduced by the judge due to Virginia Law." Rambus says they'll appeal.
between the laws being bad, and the laws being badly applied.
Personally, I don't have any problem at all, with companies being able to patent, and profit from their inventions.
This case was all about a company suckering an entire industry into using their ideas in a standard. Then after the standard is widely adopted, and prohibitively expensive to back away from, the pop out with a patent that everyone is now in violation of. It's not about patent law being bad, it's just about sleazy business practices.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
Looser pays winner's court cost? No, thanks. Big Hairy Corp would probably consider it a small investment to spend that additional 100K intimidating you by keeping you in court for a year or two. Yeah, you get your money back... but you've lost time, sleep, and gained nothing but stress over it.
Also... heaven forbid that you are the one to bring suit against BHCorp... you had better be damn sure you will win, because you sure as hell can't afford to pay their legal bills.
"Looser pays" only works if the two litigants have roughly the same assets. Once you get into a huge disparity, the side with the most money wins, because they cn afford to litigate in order to gain advantage, whether or not they win.
Now, if the proposal was "looser pays winners court costs, up to the amount that the looser spent in court", then you've got something that might work. If BHCorp spends $10,000,000 suing me, and I spend $1,000 defending myself and loose... well, I owe my lawyer $1,000, and BHCorp $1,000 towards their court costs. If I win, they have to shell out an additional $1000 to cover my court costs.
Overall, I think this is a better solution... the more you spend to try and win a case, the more you risk loosing.
"Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgement." Job 32:9
Not so they can get rich by extorting others who are actually innovating by pushing a lot of paper.
And rambus pushes a TON of paper. For Q2, Rambus's legal bill was $7.3 million! I leave it to you to imagine the amount of paper that buys.
Rather, patents are a favor granted to benefit we the people with better products at lower rates.
Companies screaming about being robbed and having their "rights" violated (in this case by members of a jury of americans) should remember, those rights are there to serve us, not you.
Legit companies should be getting in to stop patent insanity, lest we (and crazy hippy protestors) throw the baby out with the bathwater.
This ruling does me good. Any way we can contact the judge and send him chocholates?
It's been beaten to death on /. but the stupid patent laws have to go! This is at least a step in the right direction. I hope the trend continues.
Seems to me that the consensus here is that the patent system and courts worked just fine in this case.
Did you notice in the article that they're citing that this law will slow innovation because people can no longer patent standards?
n ovation- ---------
It seems to me that companies in court these days are using the word "Innovation" like the boy who cried wolf. If it can't be used to churn a profit, it's stifling innovation. First microsoft bashing GPL and Open Source products, now Rambus.
"Stifling Innovation" is the newest buzz-word for "We don't like it and we can't profit off it".
Here, guys. Let me help you out.
http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=in
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They were found to be liable.
Fight Spammers!
I think this can be safely classified as a completely unexpected result. Careful, patent litigators. The sword you hold isn't just double-edged -- it's got no fuckin' handle either!
Excepting Ex-President Clinton, whom only pays half, as he never inhaled.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Maybe this will set a precedent to help destroy the "frivolous lawsuits rather than honest work" business model.
Awww, poor widdle Rambus. Couldn't sue all your competition out of business. Crap! Now you'll have to, like, commit yourselves to making quality products to increase market share. That's gotta suck. Competition is soooo unfair, right guys?
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
hehe, PR statements are fun to play with...
The American Dream went to hell in a handbasket when someone decided that "The Customer" was King, and the customer beli