This is what the legal equivalent of nuclear first strike looks like. And I've got a case of the giggles.
The short of it is as follows. A few lawyers get together and form a law firm. said law firm buys the rights to sue on behalf of patents. technically, the law firm bought the patents with the intent to use them, but they do not have any engineers or marketing or anything to do with said patents. The law firm then goes out and finds companies that are vaguely using technology that a judge might find is in violation of the patents. "Nice company youse gots here, ain't that right? Be a shame if you had to suck all your capital into a multi-year lawsuit. How about youse guys settle?" Most companies, with the exception of Newegg, have gone the settlement route.
In walks Cloudflare.
- Now, instead of just fighting to invalidate the single patent in their case, Cloudflare is backing a campaign to have all of Blackbird's patent holdings – roughly 70 of them – declared invalid for future litigation.
Cloudflare takes a look at the patent portfolio this law firm has, sees that all they are is a patent troll and laughs while saying BRING IT ON. Then they make a call to the combined autism of the Internet to look for prior art ON EVERY SINGLE PATENT THEY REPRESENT. If the law firm moves forward, Cloudflare will wage war to invalidate every patent they own. If the law firm backs down, Cloudflare is going to go on the offensive and get the courts to censure the lawyers. Turns out that you cannot sue for patent infringement, easily at least, if you are nothing but a legal patent holding entity. If you produce something with the patents you own, or represent people who do, it is a bit easier and a bit more on the side of legal.
If, IF, Cloudflare does go nuclear, does go for the fight and takes this as far as they can, there is a possibility of giving the rest of the US tech industry a spine and stop settling with the trolls. Hell it may even set precedents.
Hopefully I got that all down in plain inglish and did not screw up the basics.
Once again, I'm bothered by the usage of the word "autism" in this context. Is this a good application of the word - with meaning provided by 4chan?Then they make a call to the combined autism of the Internet to look for prior art ON EVERY SINGLE PATENT THEY REPRESENT.
Look, man. I'm a IT guy with three hard science hobbies. If I was born in the '80's I'd have been doped all up on Ritalin and most likely properly diagnosed. Autism is not a bad thing. It is not a good thing. It is a word used to described the way some human brains, mostly male, interact with the world. I realize that there is a whole "OMG AUTISM" thing out in the real world where this is treated almost like a disability, and in the extreme cases where people need therapy and medication it is. There is an old joke from the Pre-web Usenet days when the word first started gaining traction. What do you call a 30 year old man with autism? Engineer.Once again, I'm bothered by the usage of the word "autism" in this context.
So, it's okay for you to use the word "nigga" because you're a nigga? Or did I misunderstand you explaining your three hobbies? What you just did is diminish the value of the word by using it in a context that was designed to be diminishing. By using it to describe someone who's not autistic, you're making it just another swear word - because clearly, there's very little positive attitude attached to it outside of medical context. It doesn't belong in that puddle - and that's my problem with it.
Ever wonder what would motivate a woman like Jane Goodall to spend most of her life watching chimps fight and fling feces at each other? Go hang out in /pol/ for an hour. Then go read something sane and rooted in reality to eye bleach yourself.
I'm at a family reunion right now, covered in shit
Cloudflare's Matthew Prince wrote a long blog post about this yesterday.
My first reaction upon seeing the first paragraph or two of the article was that state bars take a dim view of this kind of thing. I'm glad they're going that route--far too many terrible lawyers are allowed to keep going, and it always takes the various bar associations far too long to do anything about it.