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Patent Troll VirnetX Awarded $626M In Damages From Apple (arstechnica.com)

Posted by timothy on from the made-their-play-got-what-they-wanted dept.

Tackhead writes: Having won a $200M judgement against Microsoft in 2010, lost a $258M appeal against Cisco in 2013, and having beaten Apple for $368M in 2012, only to see the verdict overturned in 2014, patent troll VirnetX is back in the news, having been awarded $626M in damages arising from the 2012 Facetime patent infringement case against Apple.

5 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Require that patents be defended by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    instead of defend, it should be 'use'. unused patent just stifles innovation. you wanna keep it, use it.

  2. East Texas patent troll capitol of america .. by tetraverse · · Score: 5, Informative

    'East Texas is known for its Piney Woods, Caddo Lake, maybe for sweet potatoes. It’s also the patent lawsuit capitol of the country. More patent infringement cases are brought to Eastern District courts than anywhere else. There’s pressure to root out the so-called “patent trolls”.' ref

  3. Re:Require that patents be defended by Tom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Most patents on software are fundamentally wrong the way they are being issued.

    A patent should be about your brilliant invention of how to do something, in detail, that nobody else could figure out. It should not be about what to do, without any details on the how.

    The patent on the steam engine did not read "a machine that produces torque". Everyone could see that such a machine would be useful, the devil is in figuring out how to build it. But a lot of software (and design) patents are of the "a button that makes you do this cool thing" kind. They leave out the actual technical details, which is why they are so broad and abusable.

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  4. Greed. The oldest profession by geekmux · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Only in America can "Patent Troll" become a legal multi-billion dollar industry, and yet prostitution remains illegal.

    How ironic, since both are in the business of fucking people.

  5. Re:Require that patents be defended by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Informative

    Patents were created to benefit the public, not the inventor.
    The value of patents is in the sharing of inventions for public use, the cost of patents is a period of protection given to the inventor.
    Requiring inventions to be used by the patent owner or else allow use by the public seems perfectly in line with the concept of patents.

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