Brian Dodson > News
I have a confession to make -- I never learned to sew. Perhaps I can blame this on growing up during the 50s and 60s before gender-based roles loosened... Read More »
In an experimental tour de force that could assist in the development of highly sensitive sensors for electric and magnetic fields with frequencies ranging from... Read More »
The tools and techniques which will eventually bring quantum computing within our grasp are undergoing fast and furious development – so much so that it is... Read More »
On Dec 19, 2011, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in Apple v HTC. In the original complaint, Apple had claimed that HTC (currently the largest... Read More »
The horrors of Alzheimer’s disease are well known, and the specter of this disease will fall over most of us in one way or another. Enormous quantities of ... Read More »
At times, when you have trouble finding something, the answer is right at your feet. As I surf the Web, I find increasing sentiment that the idea of patents is... Read More »
Which of the following statements is incorrect?
1. The use of the spice turmeric for assisting the healing of wounds is recorded in Sanskrit... Read More »
Is claim construction an issue of law to be decided de novo on appeal, or are there relevant issues of fact, justifying that deference be given to the decisions and... Read More »
This is crazy! When I went off to Sandia Labs with a fresh new PhD in my pocket, my main experience with scientific computing was the Commodore Pet I had... Read More »
I have noticed a growing trend over the past decade for researchers to garner publicity for their efforts by embedding their (often brilliant) work into some... Read More »
Does a party who ‘actively induces infringement of a patent’ under 35 U.S.C. §271(b) have to know as a fact that the actions in question support... Read More »
An enlightened decision by the National Institutes of Health has freed up crucial transgenic strains of mice whose use for research was being threatened by a patent... Read More »
In a recent decision, the European Union Court of Justice, sitting in Grand Chamber, has ruled on three questions concerning interpretation of Article 6(2)(c) of EU... Read More »
The issue of Non-Compete Agreements (NCAs) has grown with technology companies being overly dependent on a small number of key employees. Many commenters have... Read More »
The America Invents Act (AIA) has significantly changed the processes available for prosecuting and challenging a patent. In this final section, I will outline these... Read More »
This is the middle article of a set of three on the effect of the America Invents Act. The first article discussed the First-Inventor-to-File system changes, the... Read More »
The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (P.L. 112-29) has changed the patent law landscape more thoroughly than any legislation since the Patent Act of 1952. The... Read More »
The latest patent troll case exploded into the U.S. District Court of Delaware earlier this month when Boadin Technology, L.L.C., filed an infringement suit against... Read More »
Comments
Bob ZeidmanGreat analogy. I did a different analogy on my blog enttitled "Grocery trolls and civil liberties" at http://www.safe-corp.biz/blog/2011/09/02/grocery-trolls-and-civil-liberties.
Sep 20, 2011
Anonymous Your real estate analogy is apt, but presumes too much. The more typical cases have slightly different scenarios. Suppose Judy's title is derived from an Illinois Torrens deed, itself depending on an original grant in 1810 proximate Kaskaskia, Illinois, that defines the property as "in the Illinois Territory" and the land extending along a line from "The Old Oak Tree" to "The Mississippi River" in 1810. Judy sends letters, not only to Qmart, but to every farmer and business on both sides of the river, within 20 miles, all the way to St. Louis, and offers to settle the trespass case for $100,000, expecting to discount settlements to $10,000. Most "troll" patents are more like this deed (Torrens certificates a fraught with clerical errors and forgery; the River moved in 1812) in that while they may be of either dubious validity, or dubious infringement, or both, the cost of proving innocence outweighs the price of settlement. Anheuser-Busch (remember, Judy claims all the way to St. Louis) might fight it, but the one-location truck stop in the contested territory can't afford it.
Sep 20, 2011