Help Dealing with Patent Trolls
I know a lot of GS indies are concerned with getting sued by companies like LodSys, especially with the In App Purchase feature of GS coming out soon. It seems there's help coming from the Appsterdam Legal Defense Fund, and I've written up my own take on it here.
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As an indie app developer, one of my biggest concerns is the possibility of getting sued for, basically, existing.
You may or may not have heard of Patent Trolls. These are companies who exist only to sue people. They make nothing themselves, but instead purchase patents that have been written as broadly as possible, then use those patents to threaten companies using technology that has little or nothing to with the original patent. Because many small companies don't access to legal council, they often simply sign the agreement, which not only often demands money having nothing to do with the already iffy claim to infringement, but also legally prevents the company from discussing even the existence of the agreement, much less it's details. One excellent expose on the crisis came from NPR.
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See the full article on my website at scottmauer.com.
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As an indie app developer, one of my biggest concerns is the possibility of getting sued for, basically, existing.
You may or may not have heard of Patent Trolls. These are companies who exist only to sue people. They make nothing themselves, but instead purchase patents that have been written as broadly as possible, then use those patents to threaten companies using technology that has little or nothing to with the original patent. Because many small companies don't access to legal council, they often simply sign the agreement, which not only often demands money having nothing to do with the already iffy claim to infringement, but also legally prevents the company from discussing even the existence of the agreement, much less it's details. One excellent expose on the crisis came from NPR.
...
See the full article on my website at scottmauer.com.
Comments
what a stupid,stupid thing … violating all standards of FairTrade … preventing producers from selling their products and preventing consumers from buying what they want!
MH