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PayPalThe case of Valve versus Leigh Rothschild and all associated companies has come to an end, with Valve coming out the clear winner in this one.
For those unfamiliar, Rothschild has a lot of patents and has a habit of going after various companies to try and get money out of them. They even tried to sue GNOME, as just one appropriate example here.
It sure took a while for this situation to be solved, with a first case being originally filed in 2022 from Display Technologies LLC (a patent holding company from Rothschild). The patent in question, US8856221B2, covers a "System and method for storing broadcast content in a cloud-based computing environment". This caused Valve to file their own suit in 2023 which targeted Rothschild directly, various companies and even their lawyers.
For once, a patent troll got what was coming to them and the public verdict is an interesting one to read through. Not only has it been thrown out, but Valve have been awarded damages at what appears to be over $150,000. With the jury noting Rothschild violated the Washington Patent Troll Prevention and Consumer Protection Acts due to making the assertion of patent infringement in bad faith.
Pocket change when it comes to Valve, but perhaps a nice warning call to patent trolls not to mess with the likes of Valve.
The jury also awarded an "advisory verdict for Valve" according to the docs favouring the invalidity of Claim 7 of the ’221 Patent "due to obviousness". It's not entirely over just yet though as courts now need to set a date for the remaining disputes between Valve and Rothschild, on Valve's "invalidity and unenforceability claim".
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Hopefully this will mean that lawyers will be more resistant to being complicit in patent trolling. That could change the whole landscape.
Also, wow, that verdict document is properly damning.
Mountain Man 13 hours ago
Quoting: Mountain Man$150,000 seems too small of a penalty. They should have added another zero.As far as I understood (which is very limited), this is just this step and this actually sets Valve up further action. So I'd expect much more in the future.
Not the smartest move to try and screw over a company that actually has the resources to fight back.
Kimyrielle 10 hours ago
Quoting: Mountain Man$150,000 seems too small of a penalty. They should have added another zero.Even that isn't enough. Businesses like that have no right to exist. They should have seized the entire thing and shut them down.
Quoting: KimyrielleI'm really torn over this. On one hand I'm pretty pro-capitalism (with the understanding that all -isms need some guardrails) but I'm also very much against owning "ideas". Maybe there could be some kind of middle ground where you can sue for patent infringment if you are actively using the patent in a product. But, if you aren't using it then you lose you ability to sue for infringment. Heck maybe even move the patent to the now producer of said patented product.Quoting: Mountain Man$150,000 seems too small of a penalty. They should have added another zero.Even that isn't enough. Businesses like that have no right to exist. They should have seized the entire thing and shut them down.
Still, it all is so tiresome trying to figure out a million laws/ways to stop everyone from screwing each other over. Why, oh why, did so many of us allow money worship to be such a central focus... :(
Quoting: eggroleQuoting: KimyrielleI'm really torn over this. On one hand I'm pretty pro-capitalismQuoting: Mountain Man$150,000 seems too small of a penalty. They should have added another zero.Even that isn't enough. Businesses like that have no right to exist. They should have seized the entire thing and shut them down.
Quoting: eggroleWhy, oh why, did so many of us allow money worship to be such a central focus... :(Um, capitalism. That's kind of the point.
Quoting: M@GOidValve have big pockets and can afford to drag this in courts for years. But there are patent trolls going after the small companies and try to defeat them only trough legal costs.I think that the legal system should be basically all public defenders/prosecutors. If you want to sue someone, you file the lawsuit, you get assigned a lawyer, the person you sue gets assigned a lawyer, they go at it, you both get assessed a fee based on ability to pay. If it's a complex case, maybe more lawyers, but you both get assigned the same amount of legal team. Maybe there's a step in there for a quick determination if the case is obviously frivolous it just gets dumped before the government has to spend money on you.
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