Comments on: Good Morning Vietnam http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2006/09/good-morning-vietnam.html Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:36:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Pete http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2006/09/good-morning-vietnam.html/comment-page-1#comment-3665 Pete Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:35:42 +0000 http://www.feld.com/wp/?p=1288#comment-3665 Brad, I'm with you on this one, bigtime. My company (venture-backed software start-up) just finished up a patent lawsuit brought on by a large, deep-pocketed competitor. It cost our company many millions to defend, over a course of years, and it was a significant distraction to management. Our competitor used lawsuit FUD in every single sales cycle against us, and it was clearly an attempt to derail our business: the lawsuit was announced by our competitor in a press release right at the end of our fiscal year, the patents in question were completely inconsequential to our competitor's current products, and they are due to expire soon anyway. We won the case, and the jury found the patents invalid. It is a shame that the patent system can be abused in this way. But the reality is, with our legal system, anyone can sue anyone else, and it costs a lot of money to defend against these lawsuits. Even though we won our case, I'm sure our VC backers would have preferred to see their investment dollars go into sales, marketing, or product development, rather than to our law firm. Pete Brad, I’m with you on this one, bigtime. My company (venture-backed software start-up) just finished up a patent lawsuit brought on by a large, deep-pocketed competitor.

It cost our company many millions to defend, over a course of years, and it was a significant distraction to management. Our competitor used lawsuit FUD in every single sales cycle against us, and it was clearly an attempt to derail our business: the lawsuit was announced by our competitor in a press release right at the end of our fiscal year, the patents in question were completely inconsequential to our competitor’s current products, and they are due to expire soon anyway.

We won the case, and the jury found the patents invalid.

It is a shame that the patent system can be abused in this way. But the reality is, with our legal system, anyone can sue anyone else, and it costs a lot of money to defend against these lawsuits.

Even though we won our case, I’m sure our VC backers would have preferred to see their investment dollars go into sales, marketing, or product development, rather than to our law firm.

Pete

]]> By: Brad Feld http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2006/09/good-morning-vietnam.html/comment-page-1#comment-3664 Brad Feld Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:21:16 +0000 http://www.feld.com/wp/?p=1288#comment-3664 No shit - I put that in the "totally awesome irony category." No shit – I put that in the “totally awesome irony category.”

]]> By: Charile Wood http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2006/09/good-morning-vietnam.html/comment-page-1#comment-3663 Charile Wood Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:15:38 +0000 http://www.feld.com/wp/?p=1288#comment-3663 I totally dig the irony of the ads that Yahoo attached to this post: - Patent Your Software - Software Patent Attorney - Expert Witness Registry - Resumes - Software Patent Research Results :-) -c I totally dig the irony of the ads that Yahoo attached to this post:

- Patent Your Software
- Software Patent Attorney
- Expert Witness Registry – Resumes
- Software Patent Research Results
:-)
-c

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