Trollala – Fight patent trolls by banding together confidentially

by ideaphore • 10 years ago

134 37 10 years ago

osipov• 10 years ago

How's this any better than https://trollingeffects.org/

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

On trolling effects, uploaded demand letters are displayed publicly. Small business owners (targets) are worried that the trolls will retaliate if they find out the target is looking to fight back. We will not post your demand letters, but will instead confidentially match you with others who have received similar letters. Also, we will provide a private collaboration environment where all participants sign an NDA and fundraising tools.

hodgesrm• 10 years ago

This is a brilliant idea. How is the site funded?

oh_sigh2• 10 years ago

In what manner could trolls retaliate if they find out the target wants to fight the case? Couldn't the trolls just pretend like they got a lawsuit on this site, and then be matched with the confidential other parties?

anc84• 10 years ago

Does your service do the matching and hosting of files on an internet-connected machine? How do you ensure confidentiality?

rdtsc• 10 years ago

This is great. Would like to see more of these kinds of efforts.

Just watched The Patent Scam video by Austin Meyer (developer of X-Plane flight sim who was sued by patent trolls).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG9UMMq2dz4

That kind of stuff makes my blood boil.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

Thanks. It makes our blood boil too.

JTon• 10 years ago

I remember watching this video here, a while back. Has Google stepped up in defense of Austin yet?

iakh• 10 years ago

What's to stop the troll from submitting their own letter and joining and/or influencing the defense group?

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

Trolls might very well try this. We will carefully screen people who sign up to make sure this doesn't happen. We have several ways in mind to do this, happy to discuss if you're interested. If trolls stoop to fraud or bribery to infiltrate the group, there's not much we can do - this is true of regular joint defense groups too. If they do infiltrate, they can make things difficult, but they can't completely destroy the utility of it. Our tools would still make small businesses more powerful than they were alone.

premium-concern• 10 years ago

Plus, it would look very poorly in court if trolls would be caught doing this. So maybe instead of not letting them join, show them that they "joined", but don't show them any relevant information?

mcherm• 10 years ago

Actually, your best defense is to be able to identify the troll (which is difficult!) because if you can show "bad faith" on their part in court that really helps your case.

orthoganol• 10 years ago

Just wondering, is this a weekend 'throw up a template' project or a serious effort from someone in the industry? I would have some hesitation submitting without a sense for who is behind it.

dennisnedry• 10 years ago

Yeah same here, I'm a bit nervous giving out my personal information to perfect strangers. Is this site legitimate?

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

Appreciate the concern. This is a collaboration between ideaphore (the co-invention platform and service) and hard-ip.net (patent agent firm). Both companies were founded by people who are passionate about innovation and putting an end to predatory patent trolling. We're committed to making this work if people really want it. We'll do our best to protect your personal information.

mnx• 10 years ago

I don't want to pick nits too much, but no https?

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

On it. Will switch over.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

SSL added.

RyJones• 10 years ago

Are you working with Newegg on this? Lee Cheng could be a powerful ally https://twitter.com/leechcheng

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

Good idea. We'll reach out.

gnu8• 10 years ago

Is this idea patented? It might be a trap.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

Admiral Ackbar? Is that you?

rubidium• 10 years ago

Good idea. But definitely need

- A FAQ. Trust is a big deal here. Why trust you?

- HTTPS

- An overview of options for your target customer. The reason someone will need your service is because they've just received a letter claiming patent infringement. A basic tutorial on "what you can do when you get a patent infringement letter" would be pretty useful.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

Thanks! That's really helpful. We'll add all of these things.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

FAQ added, SSL added, resources and guides coming later today. Thanks again for your input.

cloudjacker• 10 years ago

Nice, should make one of these for bittorrent swarms too!

If you haven't didn't seed, or didn't seed the whole file, it would be easy to tear apart the case. One federal court circuit created "contributory copyright infringement", which is not a creature of the legislation at all, but even that is on weak legs, assuming you ever got to court.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

That's an interesting idea. But it doesn't quite translate because each individual copyright infringement case has its own facts, you either did it or not. With patent infringement, the validity of the patent affects every potential plaintiff the same way. But it's something to consider in the future. Thanks.

pascalxus• 10 years ago

This looks like a great product. Perhaps there's a lot of potential for add-on services, that might reduce the hefty 2million$ cost of litigation.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

Indeed. In fact, filing an inter-partes review, something our partner Hard-IP is very good at, is significantly cheaper than litigation in federal court. Also, with a large enough joint defense group, we may be able to negotiate arbitration or mediation (we would recommend baseball style mediation).

josaka• 10 years ago

Joint defense groups are great for saving money on these things.

Having been in several, I've noticed a few areas to navigate carefully. It's worth making sure that everyone is comfortable with the strategy. Assuming the group tries to kill the patent, the acts of the group may limit what the individuals can do later in their defense, e.g., a weak group effort could prevent an individual from later asserting certain invalidity grounds. See e.g., part e of https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/35/315. On the other hand, often some group members don't want to pay their share for a gold-plated attack, e.g., those on a tighter budget or with less exposure.

I wouldn't let that deter me, though, from seeking a joint defense group. This seems like a great idea.

ideaphore16• 10 years ago

That's sage advice right there. Would love to chat more, if you have the time. You know where to find us.

Trollala – Fight patent trolls by banding together confidentially

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