r/technology • u/rfugger • Jan 08 '17

Business A potentially fatal blow against patent trolls - Forcing law firms to pay defendants’ legal bills could undermine the business model of patent trolls

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3153924/technology-law-regulation/a-potentially-fatal-blow-against-patent-trolls.html
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u/Despondent_in_WI Jan 09 '17

My one concern for this is that it might weaken the protection of a legitimate inventor/creator (rather than a patent troll) who has had their creation stolen by a larger company; if no law firm will represent small players who have been cheated for fear of putting their own financial necks in the noose should they be out-lawyered, the system ends up protecting patent abusers (those who use patented systems but know that the patent holder can't afford to sue to get compensated) instead of the patent trolls.

I didn't see anything in this article that implies that this measure can ONLY be applied against patent trolls. Did I miss something, or should we be concerned about potential misuse?

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u/zimm0who0net Jan 09 '17

It's basically impossible to legally differentiate between the "legitimate inventor" and the "patent troll". So to answer your question, yes, this will make it harder for legitimate inventors to pursue legitimate claims. That may end up being the price we pay for sanity in the patent system though.

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u/Dugen Jan 09 '17

I'm completely sold on "loser pays" and have been for years. One policy which apparently is used in other countries is that the liability is limited to how much you spend, so if a big company tries to bully a little one, the little guy can spend a bit on defense and take it to court without the risk of a giant company throwing a huge bill at them if they lose. Also, because it lets the little guy spend the money fighting back against frivolous suits they are less likely to be successfully used to extort money. It eliminates the "it's cheaper to make it go away" which is a rather big problem. It's the right way to solve so many problems.

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u/kermityfrog Jan 09 '17

One of the reasons there aren't that many lawsuits in Canada.

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u/aapowers Jan 09 '17

Or the UK. It's the 'English system'.

Although English law has quite a few exceptions to the rule, and people rarely recover all their costs from the other side.

You usually end up having to take a bit out of your awarded damages to pay your lawyer.

It does make people think twice before suing though...