I received an amusing email from a person at another security company yesterday.  They wanted to know how much revenue we did here at StillSecure and what we would be willing to pay as a license fee in regard to a recent patent they had been awarded.  Before the visions of Sugar Plums were deeply engraved in this persons mind, I had to tell them that, "sorry Charlie, Starkist wants tuna that tastes good".  The fact is their patent did not apply to how our product works.  But it brings up a bigger issue that has come up before, patent trolls. 

Our patent system is in drastic need of an overhaul.  In this particular case, I know for a fact that their use of this technology was not the first use in commercial instances.  There is little doubt in my mind that at a trial this claim would be laughed out of court.  The problem is getting this to trial.  A defendant even though successful would have to pay a hefty sum in attorney costs and bad PR around the suit while it was pending.  The courts are usually pretty reluctant to award attorney fees to the victorious side, let alone damages for harmed reputation. Plus the patent troll probably does not have the resources to pay such an award. I would like to see a statute put into law that if these trolls if and when they lose their law suits have to pay the legal fees and consequential and real damages suffered by the party they accused of patent infringement. In fact they should have to post a bond to make sure they are good for fees and damages in the event they lose.

Personally I think companies would be better off executing on making their product work and selling it in the market, rather than hoping to sneak a patent through the patent office and become bloodsuckers off of someone else's hard work. It is for exactly this reason that I do not even mention the company involved here.  Frankly, mentioning them on my blog would give them more daylight than they deserve.  Let them keep limping along with a handful of employees trying to make 30 cents out of a quarter, hoping that some lawsuit will do what their own efforts at building a company could not.