Re: Acacia-Dead Long live the Joint Defense Group!
Our patent system is broken, only ones who win are the lawyers.
If you own a legit patent, you gotta enforce it with the courts. At the same time if you are one of these companies that buy up BS patents, you can target anyone using your patent and offer them the choice of licensing or being sued.
These things can be in court for years and tend to be very expensive to fight as you need specialized attorneys and experts.
It comes down to a business decision if you're targeted:
1) fight it in court
2) negotiate a licensing fee you can afford
3) stop using the invention in question
The less legit the patent is, the more affordable #2 will be and thus it will often be the best business decision. Used properly it's basically legal extortion.
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