Mood:
a-okTopic: The DISCLAIMER
FYI - Niro Scavone Haller & Niro is the lawfirm representing Vertical Computer Systems (VCSY) in a lawsuit against Microsoft for infringement of patent #6,826,744. Troll? No. More like Trawler. BIG net on dotNet and the fishes are scurrying to get out of reach of that big mouth. The net... that's what I'm talking about. Shouldn't be swimming in illegal waters.
From VCSY, A Laughing Place, Part 3
Great find from Benjy
From Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro(On patent infringement)
Timothy J Haller and Sally Wiggins, Niro Scavone Haller & Niro
Trolls are mythological figures in folklore – so where do so-called ‘patent trolls’ come from? The term was first used in July 2001 when Brenda Sandburg wrote an article for American Lawyer publication The Recorder entitled “Trolling for dollars”. On page one of the article there was a picture of Intel’s then Assistant General Counsel Peter Detkin holding a troll doll. The second page showed attorney Raymond P Niro, of Chicago firm Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, with the caption “Patent power”. The accompanying article began with the storybook ‘once upon a time’ claim that: “In the sleepy village of Santa Clara, there lived a very wealthy but very frightened giant named Intel. Intel was plagued by a fearsome band of evil trolls – patent trolls to be exact – who wanted a glittering pot of gold in exchange for doing absolutely nothing. They were very powerful because they said they owned the patent on some of the magic Intel used to become rich.”
Intel cried foul because it had been sued for patent infringement and defamation after publicly calling a client of Niro’s firm an “extortionist”. Thereafter, Peter Detkin coined the term ‘troll’ to avoid more lawsuits: “We were sued for libel for the use of the term ‘patent extortionist’ so I came up with the ‘patent trolls’,” Detkin said. “A patent troll is somebody who tries to make a lot of money from a patent that they are not practicing, have no intention of practicing and in most cases never practiced.”
After this incident Detkin became the managing director of Intellectual Ventures, a company that buys patents by the hundreds. In a Newsweek article Intellectual Ventures founder Nathan Myhrvold said: “If giant corporations are making billions of dollars from my ideas, I want something for it.” The same article goes on to define Intellectual Ventures’ business model as follows: “With this large bankroll, the company is out buying existing patents in droves. [Myhrvold will not comment on these activities, but sources say he has already purchased about 1,000 patents.] The strategy is to set up a sort of patent marketplace. Patent owners get money upfront for the dusty ideas sitting on their shelves, the investors get the rights to use the ideas without being sued and Myhrvold gets to rent those same ideas to other companies that need them to continue creating products.” (Newsweek, “Factory of the future?”, B Stone, November 22 2004.)
This certainly seems to satisfy Detkin’s definition of a ‘patent troll’. Indeed, others have even referred to Intellectual Ventures as a “patent troll on steroids, stockpiling patents to hold entire industries hostage”. (IP Law & Business, “Going once?”, L Lerer, October 2006.)
The background behind patent trolls
Conclusion
So where does the idea of patent trolls arise from? No doubt the enforcement of patents can become abusive if a good-faith basis to assert a patent does not exist. However, that threshold applies to every individual or company, large or small, and regardless of whether they actively manufacture the technology embodied by their patents. In these discussions it must not be forgotten that it is the ownership of the patent that affords the constitutional right to enforce it against those who infringe. Arguments that attempt to circumvent or mask this notion, or to criticise the patent trolls who fully comply with the patent laws in enforcing the patents that they own, are wholly without merit.
