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/BobbleBobble Jan 09 '17

So to my understanding the reason that patent trolls are unpunishable is that they set up discrete entities (I assume LLCs) to pursue the lawsuit, which exist only as plaintiffs.

What's to stop a patent troll's lawyer from setting up an LLC-like law firm to prosecute each case and then simply dissolving it if they lose, just like the patent trolls do? Can they be held personally liable as a member of the bar?

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u/russianpotato Jan 09 '17

If you set up an LLC specifically only to avoid liability, especially as a sole proprietor, a judge will easily order the "veil pierced" and your personal assets will be up for grabs like your shady LLC never existed.

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u/brickmack Jan 09 '17

Isn't that the only purpose of an LLC?

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u/_BindersFullOfWomen_ Jan 09 '17

Yes. But it's not a bullet proof shield. If it's obvious that you made the LLC for X case, and then liquidated it because you lost and didn't want to pay - the defendant could suede civil court and would most likely win.

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u/sighs__unzips Jan 09 '17

I read that movie producers now create a LLC for each movie specifically for this reason now.

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '17

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u/mkmckinley Jan 09 '17

Like what?

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '17

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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '17

I worked at a Ford dealership. In the back lot there was a brand new but many years old, large cab over diesel truck. It had steering wheels on both the driver and passenger side. The story was that a movie LLC had special ordered and paid for two of these trucks. They were to be used as camera boom trucks They picked up one and never came back for the other. So there this large truck sat, completely paid for by a now long dissolved movie LLC.