Re:Patent Trolls: Make Them Pay
by steve8918 on Tuesday September 18, 2012 @06:53PM
(#4540957)
What's to stop patent trolls from forming a corporation with no assets, suing people, and then declaring bankruptcy if they lose their case? They could forfeit their patents, but it would be worthless anyway if they lost the case.
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Re:Patent Trolls: Make Them Pay
by JoshTriplett on Tuesday September 18, 2012 @06:54PM
(#4540965)
I think you've summed up one of the major problems precisely, yes.
Ideally, such a transparent attempt at patent trolling ought to result in a pierced corporate veil and personal liability on behalf of the owners, but in practice that seems unlikely to happen.
Re:Patent Trolls: Make Them Pay
by rogerbinns on Tuesday September 18, 2012 @09:09PM
(#4541495)
Hollywood has precisely this model, setting up a corporation for each film made that somehow always ends up making a big loss, all the while paying massive fees to studios setting it up in the first place.
One thing we can be sure of is that patent trolls will adjust their business models and practise far quicker than Congress does anything.
The correct fix is to stop granting so many patents. Each one granted should answer yes to "would this have taken about 20 years or more to happen otherwise". They could also have special patent courts which could ensure consistency in the actual "justice" that is happening.