Champerty and Other Common Law We Could Use Today

pevans writes "Over on Red Hat's Opensource.com I found this neat summary of a few old laws that could really help us today with the patent trolls. The article 'What's wrong with champerty?' is brief, but full of legal goodness that seems to have fallen by the wayside: 'Let's bring back barratry, maintenance, and champerty for patent lawsuits. Combine that with a limitation on the assignment of patents and a lot of patent trolls would be out of business. ...do patents have to be freely assignable? And why can't we prohibit a cause of action for patent infringement where there is no net gain to society?"

Comments

Re:No, no, no.

[BlackHawk-666]

I'm quite fond of stoned girls who aren't virgins.

Sure, but no reason to be sexist

[r00t]

What next? Stoning girls because they weren't virgins on their wedding?

This would cut down on teen pregnancy, abortion, children growing up in broken families, STDs, and so much more.

Modern science allows us to hunt down most of the guys too, so we don't have to be sexist. We can now get DNA just from a touch, and we can track tiny mutations in the microbes that people normally carry. Even a virus like HIV has mutations that can help lead back to the guilty party.

We can build a database with everybody's DNA signature in it, and soon we'll be able to do full sequences including microbes. We could use GPS tracking on everybody so that we can reduce the search space. We could even have chastity belts with tamper alarms, for both male and female (they can alert on proximity).

For the stoning itself, I think we should televize it live. We can auction off the right to throw the first stones, and we can sell tickets to throw the rest of the stones.

Re:Sure, but no reason to be sexist

[AliasMarlowe]

For the stoning itself, I think we should televize it live. We can auction off the right to throw the first stones, and we can sell tickets to throw the rest of the stones.

With a bonus extra stoning, if anyone says "Jehovah" during the show, or if a stone-thrower's beard falls off.

Re:your big chancego on then, write that law

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Re:Trial By Combat!

[PopeRatzo]

I'd be perfectly fine with legalized dueling so long as there were set rules and the major players were above the age of 18

Typical secular left opinion.

Since fetuses and corporations are people, they should be allowed to duel, too.

Re:Trial By Combat!

[plover]

I shall ready the trebuchet!

Then I shall fetch thee a lawyer, that thou may'st have ammunition.

Re:Trial By Combat!

[Anonymous Coward]

Since fetuses and corporations are people, they should be allowed to duel, too.

That's only fair, since they have to register with Selective Service. If they can die for their country, they can die for a maid's honor.