Fark Points Out That Even Though It Doesn't Come Close To Infringing On Patent, It Still Has To Go To Court (original) (raw)
from the no-easy-dismissals dept
Earlier this year, we wrote about how Fark, Reddit, Digg, Slashdot, TechCrunch and others were sued over a highly questionable patent (6,370,535) concerning a system for creating online news and press releases. Despite calling out to the combined communities of these various sites, no one has yet been able to track down who’s really controlling these patents these days (I’m really surprised Reddit folks couldn’t break through the layers of obfuscation).
Either way, Drew, over at Fark, who notes that he’s the only one of the folks sued who isn’t backed by a much bigger company, also points out one of the more ridiculous facts about patent lawsuits. Even though Fark does nothing even remotely close to what’s in the patent, you can’t just point that out and have the case dismissed. Instead, they have to go through with the lawsuit, which may take 18 months or more. And this is one of the big reasons why so many companies — especially small ones — just pay up to settle patent infringement claims. A patent lawsuit can kill a small business, even if the patent has nothing whatsoever to do with their business.
Every time we post about patents here, a small group of “independent inventors” come here and claim that the patent system is the greatest thing ever, and anyone who criticizes it must be paid by big companies. Yet I’m curious how they feel about situations like this. Will they just say that Fark must be infringing, or will they admit to the possibility that patents can be misused in lawsuits like this?