GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - Template for the hundreds of lawsuits that can be filed against Acacia?

fiveyes · 07-24-2003, 11:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gemini
Charly, what you say is true in principle, but its also true that 2 men can't out think 10 men... You literally have hundreds of webmasters thinking and searching for information or precedents...

So there may be some things that even the brightest attorney or group of them miss. Actually there ARE things that they miss. Information is the power in court. And manpower is how attorneys deal with it. Do THEY have hundreds of people researching? Doubtful. Theirs may be more knowledgeable in how or where to search but it only takes one straw to break the camels back.

This was exactly the basis for my earlier excitement today when I posted about BountyQuest. Look at their (albeit short) history of success, 20% track record for breaking patents.

How did they do it? By enlisting hundreds of people participating in a contest. You know how we all love contests! So this site educated people as to what was needed, told them where to look for it and set them loose.

Now, how easy would it be for us to do the same? I mean put togrether a prize package of donated content, hosting, design work and such. Good causes usually attract good deals with good names to back them up.

Then publicize a cliff notes version of these claims of this patent so everyone knows exactly what needs to be countered. Explain exactly the type of material that's usable and where it might be gathering dust (as outlined in the Way Back Machine link in my other posting) and set the hordes loose.

And, it does not matter if they know that we are doing it! When information is found, it would go directly to IMPA and be evaluated there by the experts. Prior art is it's own argument! All that they have going for themselves at this point is that the issuing agent of the patent most likely didn't search outside of the Patent Office's database. Arguments along the lines of the patent being overly broad or obvious can be very chancy. Provable prior art is a royal flush in spades.

And, in the meantime, postings like seventy's thread starter here should be encouraged. It shows at least some originality of thought and enough concern on his part to come forward with it. All this talk of locking and deleting threads is kind of frightening. It almost sounds as if you want to muzzle the man in the street when it's open discussions such as this that at least give a shred of hope to those that have no idea how this might affect them.