Is Bullying and trolling tyranny

Many of us have walked through that long dark corridor with insults being hauled at you, food hurled at your face, and for no good reason. If the idea is to shame you, I would stand by it but then again why shame me if you are already bullying me for no good reason? I guess that’s what runs into the young minds of young bullying victims as they question their existence. 

If you ask a child-bully why he/she does what he does, well they wouldn’t be to forward about what is going on in their lives and they wouldn’t give a reason formidable enough to accuse their sufferers for steering the offender actions towards the victim.

I guess sometimes we can’t leave our pasts behind, especially if you are a smart inventor, though operating low on funds. When you create and invent a new idea, am sure you are well informed about the patent process and you will advance to protect your intellectual property with a lawyer, however it gets trying when faced with a patent suit without millions of dollars to facilitate legal fees.

The overall awareness of the value of intellectual property has increased with a corresponding increase in patent filing, lawsuits and licensing.

In response to the increasing perceived value of intellectual property and patents, particularly in the world of electronics, two distinct types of patent predators have emerged; patent trolls and patent bullies.

Who is a patent troll

A patent troll is somebody who tries to make a lot of money from a patent that they are not practicing and have no intention of practicing and in most cases never practiced, (Peter Detkin, former assistant general counsel at Intel, quoted in Trolling for Dollars, The Recorder, July 30, 2001). Generally they are not inventors, they’re entrepreneurs or finance people.” The majority of patent lawsuits in the United States today are filed by entities that don’t make products. Their business model is based on extracting money from those who do make the products.”

The trolls are spoken ill of because of the perception that their legal tactics are more likely to hold back innovation than spur it on.

They acquire patents for the sole purpose of collecting licensing fees. Usually, patent troll companies produce no actual products. Ironically, those who defame patent trolls often practice this same patent monetization strategy with their own patents that cover technology, from discontinued businesses or acquired businesses, which their company no longer practices.

These trolls date back more than a hundred years for example, the Selden patent (US549, 160), with an invention date of 1877 and an issue date of 1895, covered a few of the basic concepts of the automobile. The inventor of record, George Selden, was a patent lawyer. No Selden automobile was ever built. Selden’s patent holding company collected royalties of between 2.5% and 5% from almost all US car manufacturers until 1911 when the patent was ruled invalid. This example elaborates how a company might invent or purchase a patent and sit on it as it wheels in money from licenses for the idea.

The Patent troll’s “Nothing out of the” behavior

Patent troll licensing strategies are usually quite simple – generate the maximum money in the shortest time at the least expense. Troll organizations purchase or acquire control of patents from single inventors, small corporations or bankrupt companies.

Desirable patents are ones that cover an invention that is used in a large market with many players.

Many trolls start with a shotgun approach that is distributing claims in allegation letters to numerous manufactures, suing opportunistically in hopes that an imperfect legal system will rule in their favour.

License fees may be set initially at a low level to induce companies to settle without performing sufficient due diligence – as the due diligence may be more costly than the settlement. However, if a troll can present a stronger argument that is supported by claim charts, then the license fee is set higher, at the threshold of pain for a target organization. This maximizes the troll’s return while causing the potential licensee to consider whether it will be cheaper to take an early license that may cost much less than the legal fees required for a defense. Once the troll organization established a litigation fund, it can up the ante by filing lawsuits listing large numbers of defendants or targeting one or two highly profitable market leaders. However, despite the bullying and troll game being ruthless in the business world, it can be a good business strategy.

Let’s talk about the Patent Bully

Patent bullies are corporations with large intellectual property holdings that seek strict enforcement of their patents in the market place. They create assertive licensing campaigns to enforce their patent rights by using intimidation and their size as leverage. Their strategic objectives may simply be revenue generation, but they more often employ strategies to protect a market they dominate or to raise a competitor’s cost base. This activity is a legitimate means for large corporations with huge R&D investments in technology to obtain a return on their investment and establish an even playing field.

Today, almost any business that uses basic technology is a possible target of trolls. In some cases, trolls are forcing business owners to choose between paying employees and paying legal fees