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Newegg Defeats Alcatel-Lucent in Third Patent Win This Year
Newegg's policy of not backing down from patent trolls, even ones as large as Alcatel-Lucent, continues to result in victory. Earlier this year, Overstock and Newegg successfully defended themselves with a jury invalidating Alcatel-Lucent's main patent used to force companies as large as Amazon to settle. Naturally, Alcatel-Lucent appealed, but the appeals court quickly ruled in favor of Newegg and Overstock.com. From Ars: "Federal Circuit judges typically take months, and occasionally years, to review the patent appeals that come before them. Briefs in this case were submitted last year, and oral arguments were held last Friday, May 10. The three-judge panel upheld Newegg's win (PDF), without comment — in just three days. ... Alcatel-Lucent dropped the case over its other two patents, desperate to get back the '131 patent that Newegg and Overstock had killed at trial. 'If they had been able to revive this patent, the litigation machine would have continued on,' Reines told Reuters after the win."
They really need to stop granting patents to generic and vague stuff. Besides, the stuff in that patent was done decades before Amazon even existed.
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
Of the patent(s) at hand would have been nice...
Give 'em hell, Newegg!
Another big PC build order comin' your way! Keep on winning
BTW, on a sad note, does anyone remember when Lucent actually innovated stuff? The legitimate heir of Western Electric and Bell Labs has fallen very far.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
at the trial the alacatel VP who was sent to testify had no idea which patent newegg was violating or how they were violating it. alcatel just said you must be violating one of our 27,000 patents
THIS is why I give my business to companies like NewEgg, and have and will NEVER buy a single damn thing from ones like Amazon.
Amazon settled because it is also a patent troll. Blood runs thicker than water, especially between patent trolls.
-SS "Teach the ignorant, care for the dumb, and punish the stupid."
The patent office should have to pay the legal fees of the winning side every time a patent is defeated in court.
The patent office are the gate keepers. They are currently enabling all the patent shakedowns.
For proper control every system needs proper negative feedback. If the patent office gets money for granting patents and does not lose money for granting bogus patents they are going to grant everything under the sun to encourage more applications and more incoming money.
Only by penalizing the patent office for improper patent granting will there be a proper measure of control.
The best way to deal with a playground bully is to punch him in the face. Even if he has his buddies with him. Even if you'll get disciplined by the school. You do that a few times, and no one will mess with you.
The same principle applies to patent trolls: Always fight if you can at all manage it.
I am officially gone from
This article http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/newegg-nukes-corporate-troll-alcatel-in-third-patent-appeal-win-this-year/#p3 explains the case.
Essentially everyone had given up. The patent covered eCommerce.
NewEgg did not give up.
Newegg might be smaller than Lucent, but they are still not a Mon 'n' Pop. I know that in the corporate mind anything under a thousand employees is "small business" but, face it, Newegg is not small business.
The real tragedy with patent trolls is that the *real* small business can not fight them. They can shut down a business writing innovative software with 2-3 employees just like that.
Good for Newegg, but treating it like a David vs. Goliath win is not too smart.
That's why the lawyer quoted in the article was lamenting not being able to move forward with his appeals - he keeps winning at lower levels, and the other companies drop the lawsuits because they don't want a precedent set.
Maybe not a 'legal' precedent, but most certainly a 'social' precedent.
It tells everyone that the trolls can be taken down. Notice how the trolls are backing off of Newegg. The trolls know Newegg will fight back. The trolls know that Newegg will take out their best moneymakers. Better to go pick on somebody that won't put up a fight. Well, when the rest of the playground sees that the bully will back down if you punch him in the nose, the bully's control is greatly curtailed.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Force is a euphemism for blackmail, and it's not inaccurate when applied here. "Nice web site you got here, it'd be a shame if we had a court order you to take it down. Give us $100,000 and nothing bad will happen to it, or you risk losing a $100,000,000 in court if we win." That's force to a company that doesn't have $100,000,000 in their bank account.
Newegg's made a corporate decision that said "we don't care if it's a thousand times cheaper to settle than to risk losing a lawsuit. We have a very large pile of money, and we have promised to call every single bluff presented to us. We will never fold our hand."
Go, Newegg!
John
i wanted to scan the opinion, but there is none. and the decision says nonprecedential.
not a lawyer but it seems this decision cannot set a legal precedent for future cases
There was no precedent to be set here. Basically, the appeal was Alcatel trying to get its favorite patent un-invalidated, and the the judges looked at the case and are basically telling Alcatel "There's nothing wrong with the lower court's decisions - it stays invalidated. Now go away and quit bothering us".
Don't tell me to get a life. I had one once. It sucked.
Ah Alcatel. 27000 patents and not one usable product.
What happens with the settlements that Amazon and others made over this patent? Can that money be clawed back?
Verbum caro factum est
Actually, their view is somewhat more long-sighted than that. "We know settling this one patent would be cheaper than fighting, but settling would encourage a flood of other patent trolls to try and that would be more expensive."
So, does Amazon now get to sue Alcatel-Lucent for the amount of their settlement, as they were being extorted for greenmail on something that now doesn't exist, and isn't enforceable?
Let the blowback begin!
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