News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Patent troll says it owns GPS, sues Foursquare. Parent comment

Re:Patent troll says it owns GPS, sues Foursquare by astrodust on Friday July 27, 2012 @03:33PM (#4303218)
This is why, short of changing the way patents are issued, damages should be based on a meaningful metric like lost sales, or licensing fees, not theoretical damages based on a hypothetical product that was never, ever going to be made.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Patent troll says it owns GPS, sues Foursquare by philh on Friday July 27, 2012 @04:41PM (#4303474)
My understanding is that they can claim any amount of damages they want, but won't necessarily be awarded the claimed amount; and that their business model is based on people settling rather than on winning in court.

If this change was made, would there be a shortcut whereby the defendants could simply lose and have to pay close-to-zero damages, or would they still have to choose between "defending themselves in court", "settling" and "paying the claimed damages"?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Patent troll says it owns GPS, sues Foursquare by tedunangst on Friday July 27, 2012 @04:57PM (#4303548)
I believe the claimed damages generally do come from lost licensing fees.
[ Parent | on HN ]