On: Blackbird's Patent Troll Suit Against Cloudflare G...

[x0x0]

fastly appears to have paid up

http://ipwire.com/stories/blackbird-technologies-settles-pat...

[zarex → x0x0]

Yuck. I hate the way ipwire.com describes blackbird. They make it seem like they are doing something good.

[paulgb → zarex]

For context, IPWire exists in a state of denial that there is a patent troll problem:

http://ipwire.com/podcast/ep-14-special-bloomberg-view-stron...

[tgsovlerkhgsel → zarex]

I think IPWire is just providing the press release written by Blackbird themselves.

[ryanlol → zarex]

This is a press release distribution service.

[jlgaddis → x0x0]

Yep, same patent too.

I'm curious how much Fastly paid. It's too bad that they didn't hold out for a weeks longer. Maybe they'll fight next time.

[dna_polymerase → x0x0]

I guess they are not as well funded as cloudflare and therefore couldn't take the risk of loosing in court.

[willyyr → x0x0]

If the patent got invalidated now, wouldn't they be able to get their "fees" back?

[chii → willyyr]

retroactively applying a law is not very conducive to making predictions about legal matters, and therefore, it's very rarely done (if at all?).

Plus, even if blackbird has to pay back their collected fees, they can "just" bankrupt - after all, the money is gone (unless you are implying that any dividends/payment to employees etc, are clawed back...)

[AnthonyMouse → chii]

> Plus, even if blackbird has to pay back their collected fees, they can "just" bankrupt - after all, the money is gone (unless you are implying that any dividends/payment to employees etc, are clawed back...)

Money that was already paid is gone, but if you had some settlement where you pay some amount per device, you could stop paying them going forward.

It would also be effective against the use of invalid patents by large companies that wouldn't be bankrupted, which would reduce their incentive to lobby for their continued granting.

[dragonwriter → willyyr]

No. Past settlements are not undone.