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Intellectual Ventures Tied To 1,300 Shell Companies
dgharmon writes "New research (PDF) shows that Intellectual Ventures is tied to at least 1,300 shell companies whose sole purpose is to coerce real companies into buying patent license that they don't want or need. Those who resist the 'patent trolls' are dragged into nightmarish lawsuits."
It is strange but many IT entrepreneurs in France don't see the silicon valley as a dreamland. This is a place where you go to get investors, but you certainly don't open a company there. Software patents is really a strategical consideration that make our (moderately) higher tax rates seem a worthy cost.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
who?
Patent trolling took off after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office began issuing a flood of questionable âoebusiness methodâ patents related to things like software and, believe it or not, a crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In 2006, lawyers used such a patent to threaten Research in Motion with an injunction against the BlackBerry and extract a $612 million payout.
Well that's clearly why the BlackBerry has been having trouble in the market, RIM spent too much of their product development time working on sandwiches, and patent infringing sandwiches at that.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
This American Life reported this over a year ago. The podcast is well worth hearing:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack/
This is one person who actually does deserve to die. Painfully.
You know there is an obvious failure in society when shit people like him can get away with doing so much damage to thousands, possibly even millions of people through the effort that actual decent people were putting in to help the poor.
Funny how regulators and law get involved when a company is copying other people, but when it is a BLATANTLY obvious troll like this, HE GETS AWAY WITH IT. IN A COURTROOM. WHY?! ARE THESE PEOPLE STUPID? Every single one of those judges should be locked up for being clinically unstable.
Clearly, this is God's work.
Ahhh... The system works, perfectly. It actually runs itself. Who could ask for more?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
First you write the laws. Then you exploit the laws to punish others.
This is why anarchy is best. Down with false property!
Intellectual Ventures are true American heroes!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
It says they're "tied to at least" blah-blah companies.
They're asking for it, so who brought the whip?
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Sounds like a clear case for the application of the Rico Act.
tied to at least 1,300 shell companies
Hey now, don't forget corporations are people! This story is racist.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Perhaps Kafka needs to assert his IP at this point???
The Trial
Oh wait....
This sounds *exactly* like how organized crime (mobs) operate. Where the hell is the FBI I'm paying for? Will they please focus on relevant issues?!?!?!
Summary is wrong, it's actually 1300 Exxon-Mobile companies,.
why anyone is complaining so loudly.
This behaviour is the natural and logical outcome of the current patent system.
Did anybody seriously expect anything different?
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
(if you don't get it, RTFA)
Now that's rich... but hey, I have a proposal, why not cut out the middle man? Instead of siphoning away money from real companies to fight mosquitos, just shut down and presto, one of the biggest parasites of today instantly wiped out.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
They're doing G-d's Work.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
That makes the right strategy "All my wealth for defence, not one dime for tribute." Pay the danegeld and you'll never get rid of the Dane.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
We are busy investigating more cases of who stole naked pictures from a fellow American citizen.
When congress finally crafts a law to eliminate patent abuse an easy measure of success is if companies like this are destroyed. Not hurt but close up shop like most of the buggy whip companies. When a company exists only to sue vibrant and healthy companies they are a parasite, that is they provide no value to society while simultaneously damaging it.
The politicians blah blah about cutting red tape and creating jobs but what about protecting us from evil like this? I can't imagine the flowering of new developments that would take place without bloodsuckers like these.
One of the things that hold third world countries back is that if you have the slightest bit of success some Mr Big / Warlord / Village chief / Crimelord / Well connected bureaucrat will come along and take whatever you have. There are few property rights in these countries. Yet in the western world the bloodsuckers have perverted the very thing that use to make us successful (property rights) where they do the very thing that those property rights were supposed to prevent.
My suggestions for IP reform are to significantly raise the bar as to what an invention really is. If someone invents a cool new battery don't let someone patent the use of that battery in everything. Shorten the life of a patent from 20 years to 10 years after the first significant use of that product. (or 20 years whichever comes first)
Software patents; how about no. Change the lifetimes for different categories of patent. Drug patents, 10 years. Material patents 15 years. Electronic patents 5 years.
Limit the damages to a tiny percentage of the wholesale value of a product.
Only allow the original inventors or companies that are implementing the product to launch a lawsuit. If you are sitting on a stack of patents they all you are doing is holding back the progress of humanity.
If a company has more than 30% of a market then make the licensing of their patents mandatory for a nominal cost.
Don't let universities charge too much for patents. Yet don't let their professors hive of some research to create a company and then patent the crap out of it.
Have an independent government department for patent invalidation. Having the patent office invalidate a patent is having them say they were wrong. Also judges need to be able to invalidate a patent.
Again raise the bar for what gets patented. I'm looking at you one-click-purchase!
If a suit asks for one amount and wins a much lower amount then the difference should be deducted from the awarded amount. So if they ask for a billion and win 100 million then you subtract 900 million resulting in 0 (zero dollars). This should be for all lawsuits.
Lastly if a lawfirm sues for a patent that later becomes invalidated then they can be hit with treble damages. (That is treble what they demanded.)
Problem solved. Many problems solved.
Might wanna go ahead to take out west texas too. Maybe flood the state, keep the big cities above water?
If corporations were people, it would take 9 months of effort and hundreds of pounds of input to create one and you wouldn't be finished until you had successfully pushed a watermelon through a garden hose.
Instead we have this company spawning 1300 "children" in a year or two. Ridiculous.
Sounds like Charlie Stross got it right in Accelerando--as a reaction to those 1300 corporations, useful corporations with actual products are going to have to react defensively, and in an exactly reciprocal fashion. Samsung is going to have to spawn 1300 child corporations and use them to hide their assets. "Oh, you were trying to sue for infringement of your phone interface? I'm sorry, Samsung Electronics 867 doesn't produce that phone. Try Samsung Electronics 335." *ring* "Samsung Electronics 335. Oh, no, you can't sue us for that phone interface. We sold it yesterday. To whom? Call back tomorrow." *ring* "Samsung Electronics 335. Yes, we sold that phone interface to Samsung Electronics 779." *ring* "Samsung Electronics 779. Oh no, you can't sue us for that phone interface. We sold it yesterday. To whome? Call back tomorrow..."
Intellectual Ventures is a clearing house of patent troll-dom. They aren't the only ones mind you, but they are among the worst. Rat Bastards!
Get them from tax evasion.
1300 shell companies all tangled up in a maze of twisty little patent lawsuits sounds like a plot device from Charlie Stross's Accelerando.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
There are already laws in place to deal with those crooks. The problem is selective application of laws - ordinary people will be jailed for years for having a little bit of marijuana in possesion, while crooky ruling elite is clearly above the law and they can do whatever they want. And if they break laws (stealing billions in the process), enforcement officials will cover it up (instead of doing what they're supposed to do) or some law retroactively legalizing criminal ruling crooks' behavior will be passed.
Wake up folks, 2012 US of A is a two-tiered society, pretty much like medieval Europe. Technology and cheap energy is the only thing keeping standard of live relatively high but if it ends, you'll get back into dark ages sooner than you think.
Oh noes! You mean... they have to continue trolling with only their remaining 1299 shell companies!
To be, or not to be: isn't that quite logical, Slashdot Beta?
Because I was expecting to find an article about a large number of shell subsidiaries. http://www.shell.com/
I was seeking my first patent when I was eight years old. Also sought copyrights and branding since then... By fifteen I was sure I had at least one patentable idea that was new and not used and useful... Now after 40 I am sure I can conceive more than one patentable anything at a steady rate... But I CANNOT YET get a _patent_! Despite all my ideas having turned into VERY SUCCESSFUL products about five years AFTER I do the initial move for it. Machines, ideas and software alike. Same goes for copyrights and brands. Should be alarming, the idea of patent to most people mean: WILL NOT LET YOU USE IT. Economics says that it is not rational to hide new inventions... but not all people involved in it are RATIONAL. Patenting is used as a way to block and obstruct, not in bona fide economics ways. Something/someone is rotten somewhere very deep... people know better the evil genius/crazy inventor/mad scientist/world dominator Islamic categories than... no adequate counterexample! Maybe Superman? The first step to hide a technology is to patent it! THEN you have lawful (legal) control against anyone wanting to use it or even remotely interested in having the product in the market constantly! Maybe we are not getting the best of what we have achieved...