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Patent Troll Values Its Entire Portfolio At $2, Goes Bankrupt (arstechnica.com)
mspohr shares a report from Ars Technica: In September 2018, Shipping & Transit LLC (formerly known as ArrivalStar) filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy -- voluntary liquidation -- but no one seems to have noticed until the Electronic Frontier Foundation pointed it out on October 31. The company claimed that it held the patent on vehicle tracking and related alerts. But about 15 months ago, judges began to rule against Shipping & Transit for the first time. That seems to have put a damper on its entire business model.
Now, according to Shipping & Transit LLC's federal bankruptcy filings, its global patent holdings (34 in the United States and 29 elsewhere) are worth a whopping $2. Meanwhile, it owes more than $423,000 to numerous creditors, including banks, law firms, and something called the "West African Investment Trust," based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Now, according to Shipping & Transit LLC's federal bankruptcy filings, its global patent holdings (34 in the United States and 29 elsewhere) are worth a whopping $2. Meanwhile, it owes more than $423,000 to numerous creditors, including banks, law firms, and something called the "West African Investment Trust," based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Sometimes patents should just be made available for everyone. This is one of those times.
They probably transfered them to another company for $2 and will start again
> How many more to go?
Four.
Three or four companies file half of *all* patent suits. The total number of patent suits includes all of the legitimate business disputes, so probably 90% of the trolling is those few companies.
To pretty much solve trolling, one only needs to study the business model of those few companies and figure out how to disrupt it, how to make it not profitable.
You hear about lots of different companies being victims of trolling, and different patents being trolled, so it seems like a large issue. It's the same plaintiffs over and over though.
So that rant suggests you're actually anti-patent rather than anti-patent-troll, a difference that matters to at least a few of us around here.
EDTX drew all those filings because EVERY serious patent holder, trolls included, wants a judge that actually takes the subject matter seriously and knows enough about patent law not to screw it up. I'm not exaggerating to say that my boss has had to explain the difference between a patent and trademark to individual federal judges in more than one district.
And that's completely beyond the fact that EDTX runs a seriously efficient docket- if/when one of *your* patents is infringed, you're going to wish to god you had a judge that was willing to keep defendants moving. Delay helps nobody but a determined or past infringer.
Blaming EDTX judges for whatever it is you don't like about patent trolls is about the most asinine thing I've read here today. That's why I suspect it's really patents in general you have a problem with.