If you ran a company whose job was to buy patents and sue violators,

[Deja Q]

how ethical or moral are they?

Truly?

I'd say "not at all".

It's a perversion of a system designed in good faith to reward creators. Not to become a rich man's equivalent to that idiotic McDonalds lawsuit, which helped confirm America as a nation of greedy imbeciles lacking even a rudimentary amount of common sense...

Well, one perversion of many, but I won't digress (for once).

[MSgt213]

1. There are whole lot of companies doing just that right now. They don't

invent, improve or doing anything else but sue for patent violations. Often times the patents they bought are suspect themselves.

[Deja Q]

3. But big companies do that all the time. How about little companies;

LLCs and such. Whose sole purpose is to make or buy patents and seek out violators. The company suing the makers of the Blackberry device is one such company. Ran by a small handful of people who buy patents and seek out violators to make a cheap buck. DESPICABLE.

Like that freak on the local news a few months back who found a novel way to sue telemarketers; by spending his time BAITING COMPANIES. That's called ENTRAPMENT. And for the record, I don't have a habit of siding with corporations. But for this case I am. You work with people fairly. You don't bait them; THAT is not ethical or morally correct. Period. How often does fighting fire with fire do any good anyway? (And when I made that initial post, I was shocked by how many were supporting that little pig...)

No wonder America gets laughed at. The corporate game itself is too corrupt. (oops, I just dissed the corporate sect again...)

[unschooler]

9. This has been going on for a long time. Henry Ford was pestered by

"patent trolls." Wealthy investors buy patents at bankruptcy auctions then start extracting royalties from small "infringers" who can't afford to defend themselves; they use these payments to build a litigation war chest with which they go after the big companies. Sometimes they even create shell companies that pretend to be innovating in the same space as that covered by the patents, while, in reality, the shell business exists solely to enforce its acquired patents. I've often thought it's ironic that the rethugs scream about how injured workers and people harmed by defective products are "hurting our competitiveness" by getting a jury verdict of a few thousand bucks while rich investors really are threatening innovative companies with their "investments in intellectual property."

They are the worst kind of sponges. On the other hand, I don't know what to do about it. Maybe Henry Ford really was infringing somebody's patent.

[ret5hd]

2. agree except for "that idiotic McDonalds lawsuit"...

you oughta read more about it.

[Deja Q]

5. Why don't you give me a link; prove my inaccuracy?

Last I recall; she was sitting in her car, her McCoffee in her lap. She turns, spills it, and gets hurt because, well, she's dumb. She's in her own property, her car. Does the $20,000 car not have even a device called a "cup holder"? Could she not feel warmth emanating from the cup?!

Maybe I am wrong with what I currently know of the situation. But as I would never cooperate in my own murder, I'm not cooperating in proving myself wrong. That's your job. You prove me wrong. :)

Now if the hamfisted fool in the drivethru window spilt it deliberately then she'd have quite the case. Of course, spilling would be highly improbable; the distance and other factors involved would mean he (or she, whatever) would have to carefully aim and throw it into her lap.

[unschooler]

10. The McD's case has been misrepresented in the MSM. Here are the facts.

http://www.atla.org/pressroom/FACTS/frivolous/McdonaldsCoffeecase.aspx

Stella Liebeck's Injury and Hospitalization

A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body.

Liebeck suffered burns on her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas.

She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting and debridement treatments (the surgical removal of tissue).
(snip)
During discovery, McDonald's produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebeck's. This history documented McDonald's knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard.

McDonald's also said during discovery that, based on a consultant's advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste.
Other establishments sell coffee at substantially lower temperatures than at McDonald's.
Coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees

[porphyrian]

4. And now they're racing to patent genomes.

The scariness continues. What happens when Pfizer owns the patent on a cancer-curing enzyme?

[Deja Q]

7. Means pfizer can buy out the compfetition...

:eyes:

And then charge more.

Besides, there's no profit in cure. Only treatment.

[BuyingThyme]

6. How can somebody sell a patent if it's worth nothing?

Patents and copyrights are little more than rights to sue. If you don't support the selling or the suing, you don't support the creators.

[Deja Q]

8. Why did Apple seek out Xerox employees in the late 1970s?

To make the Macintosh.

Xerox INVENTED the graphical user interface and mouse around 1972. But saw nothing in their little toddler toy.

Yet Apple is heralded as the creator of the GUI, mouse, et al...

Xerox saw nothing in their invention and allowed someone else to take it. Along with a bunch of their employees...

Same principle readily applies to people getting rid of patents. They think it's worthless, irrelevant, whatever, and may as well let some "sucker" take it... After all, it's just business.

(of course, Xerox later sued Apple and lost... yet Apple won against Microsoft, though Microsoft effectively did the same thing...)

[glitch]

11. I consider it a form of fraud. Highly unethical. Parasitc leeches.

I actually know someone who has made millions doing this. Very creepy all around, not just in "business".