The hapless patent attorney/shill Russ Krajec,1 of “BlueIron,” an IP consulting thing, or something, in a recent ineptly written piece, tries to criticize the extortion that lies behind patent trolling, and to distinguish it from “legitimate” “investment grade patents.” He writes:
Investment Grade Patents are not for Patent Trolling
They are for business negotiations.
Patent trolling is the business of extortion. Generally, patent trolling is when someone sues for patent infringement but is willing to settle for less than the cost of litigation. It is extortion, pure and simple.
This reminds me of my post Patent trolls as mafioso (and that’s a compliment), quoting The Godfather II:
Don Fanucci: Young man, I hear you and your friends are stealing goods. But you don’t even send a dress to my house. No respect! You know I’ve got three daughters. This is my neighborhood. You and your friends should show me some respect. You should let me wet my beak a little. I hear you and your friends cleared $600 each. Give me $200 each, for your own protection. And I’ll forget the insult. You young punks have to learn to respect a man like me! Otherwise the cops will come to your house. And your family will be ruined. Of course, if I’m wrong about how much you stole, I’ll take a little less. And by less, I only mean – a hundred bucks less. Now don’t refuse me. Understand, paisan? Understand, paisan?… Tell your friends I don’t want a lot. Just enough to wet my beak. Don’t be afraid to tell them!
Or see Hsieh and Mossoff on IP and Sewing Machines, quoting Objectivist law professor Adam Mossoff:
the fact remains that [patent] lawsuits are often no more than an invitation to negotiation. “Oftentimes the way a party signals to another party in one’s industry, ‘I’m serious about this–you need to speak with me,’ is by filing a lawsuit,” says Mossoff.
Hey, Krajec, I got news for you–the license fees extorted by your “investment grade patents” are still extortion. One could even argue patent trolls–so-called “non-practicing entities”–and “junk patents” are the not as bad as “good” or “investment grade” patents held by “practicing entities,” since patent trolls don’t want to kill the infringer, they just want “a taste”.
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