U.S. Supreme Court Deals a Blow to Patent Trolls

Anonymous Coward writes "Forbes is reporting that the Supreme Court has just limited the power of patent trolls to obtain permanent injunctions against infringers as a matter of course. The court has ruled that the principles of equity apply, meaning that a court considering slapping an injunction on the infringer must consider how much damage is really being done ... which in the case of EBay's Buy It Now feature, isn't much, since the company that owns this so-called patent only has it for the purposes of suing other people." From the article: "The high court's decision deals a blow to patent trolls, which are notorious for using the threat of permanent injunction to extort hefty fees in licensing negotiations as well as huge settlements from companies they have accused of infringing. Often, those settlements can be far greater than the value of the infringing technology: Recall the $612.5 million that Canada's Research in Motion forked over to patent-holding company NTP to avoid the shutting down of its popular BlackBerry service."

Comments

Re:Evil

[Vengie]

I don't think most people understand that for 200+ years of this country's history, "social conservatives" and "constitutional conservatives" were on the same page. Although Regan popularized "government hating" -- it's the left that has perfected it as of late. (i.e. anti-stateism) Quite simply put, the "conservatives" that BushCo have put on the court are far more "Federalist" than "Republican" -- this is why some of the justices have drifted towards the left (socially) -- because once sitting on the Supreme Court, they are moved by principles of equity to do the right then when possible -- and often to the surprise of those that supported them. Many in the Republican base were VERY upset with John Roberts for his "freedom-to-drink-hallucenogenic-tea" opinion. It was a ridiculously clear-cut Freedom of Religious Expression (Freedom of Religion) case.

Not so sure on Alito yet, but with Roberts, I assure you the "right" got far more (less) than they bargained for.