Patent Troll Sues X-Plane

symbolset writes "X-plane is a cross-platform flight simulator app, notably the only serious one that supports Mac OSX and Linux. It was the first to include NASA data in their terrain modelling. It's now under threat by an NPE (Non-Practicing Entity) called Uniloc. Uniloc is suing for things X-Plane has done for decades. X-plane cannot afford to defend this suit, so if somebody doesn't step up and defend them then we lose X-plane forever. Quoting: 'I have spoken to a lawyer about this, and I am told that it will cost me about $1,500,000 (one and a half million dollars) to defend this suit. He also told me that it should take about two to three years to defend. This is more money than I have made selling Android Apps in the first place.'"

Comments

Errrm what?

[Plumpaquatsch]

Where did "selling Android Apps" enter the picture? Turns out the patent has nothing to do with "things X-Plane has done for decades". Couldn't the editors have checked that?

Re:Errrm what?

[jhoegl]

Oh, this must be that trickle down economics I hear so much about
"Hey everyone, Im rich, but I need help defending the thing you all love because I dont really wanna pay for it."
Wait, what?

Re:Errrm what?

[Anonymous Coward]

So... he got sued because his proprietary software's DRM system infringes a troll's patent on DRM systems?

He's the lesser of two evils. I hope he wins, but it's hard to give a crap, really.

If he wins, a patent troll is defeated, which is good.
If he loses, DRM becomes harder to do, because of the patent, which is also good.
Either way, money changes hands from two asshats to their lawyers, who, quite likely are equally asshats, which is thus neutral.

Re:Errrm what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, not really the definition of "trickle down" or supply-side economics - more like what happens when you try communism and get totalitarianism.

And rated 5 Insightful by the notoriously ignorant Slashdot crowd. Must be a slow Friday.

Stop living in the US

[girlintraining]

You need to move to a free country. Innovation is dead in this country. If you don't have several million dollars, you're nobody. You aren't entitled to legal protection, you're just a consumer waiting to be extorted. I'm not saying this to be sarcastic or political; I mean it. Move your development overseas, contribute under an alias, use Tor, whatever it takes. The United States is not a place for innovators or creators to be right now. It is, however, a great place for lawyers and thieves.

Re:Stop living in the US

[Hatta]

As an example, why do international companies in the petroleum industry routinely do business in the states?

Because we have a corrupt government that gives favors to powerful industries.

Re:Stop living in the US

[girlintraining]

No, it's because we have some of the very best technology and great minds to advise companies all over the world.

I couldn't find a single piece of electronics gear in my house with the words "Made in the USA" stamped on the bottom. And as far as the "great minds to advise[sic] companies", since our educational standards are falling like a rock, and China has more honor students than we have students, let me go out on a limb and suggest that the advice they're offering is business, not engineering. Deny it all you want, but the reality is right there for anyone to see. I'm not an "alarmist" -- I can hop a plane and fly to Japan where they have state of the art cell phones that make ours look like antiques. The iPhone 5 launch there will be met with a yawn, just like every other release. I can hop another plane to Britain and walk into the dingiest apartment in the suburbs and buy internet access 10x faster than what they have here, and in some markets at a lower place. I can hop another plane to pretty much any other country on the planet and get medication at a fraction of the price it's sold for here.

In virtually every market, in every scientific and engineering discipline, I do not need to look very hard to find people not just competing with America, but beating the snot out of it. The only thing we're good at is business -- we're litigators, we're service providers, we're the world's police force. But do not fucking sit there and tell me that we are innovators. Innovation died a long time ago in this country, and that's a fact you need to square with, instead of living off the fumes of the burned out husk of the American Dream.

Re:I RTFA and see the following

[h4rr4r]

Sounds like he should get Google on the phone.