A Patent Story
Let’s say you decide to open a sandwich shop. You are afraid people will think that you stole your ideas from another sandwich shop, so you decide not to do any market research before starting.
You setup a standard sandwich shop, with an assembly line where the employees ask what kind of bread, meat, cheese etc. the customer wants on their sandwich and then makes their sandwich just in time to serve it to the customer. This is exactly how almost every sandwich shop does it in America.
Now, you work hard. You put in long hours, always make sure your customers are happy and eventually, you start to make a profit. You aren’t getting rich, but you are making enough to support your family with room to spare. This is known as “the good life”.
Pretty soon, you get a letter. Now it’s important to note, this letter isn’t from Subway, or Port of Subs or Mr. Pickles or any other sandwich shop you have ever heard of. Instead this letter is from Wheatbread LLC. Wheatbread LLC. has never sold a sandwich. They don’t do sandwich research. They aren’t working for a sandwich shop.
The letter is a cease and diciest. Wheatbread LLC. is claiming you are infringing on their patent. What is their patent for? It is for, “The assembly and preparation of food using wheat products and cold cut meats on demand.” What that means is, they are claiming they are the only ones that can make sandwiches as the customer orders them. Wheatbread LLC. wants you to pay them a royalty or they are going to sue you.
Your options are limited. If you go to court to defend yourself, you might win, but the cost to do so would eat up all your profits and the cost if you lost would be catastrophic. If you pay them, you let them win and while it may be cheaper, it will still put a strain on your business to continue to be profitable with added costs. You can’t just stop, because they will want back payment.
But what if you make the sandwiches beforehand. The customer would have to select from a handful of sandwiches, but you would be in the clear of this patent, right? Wrong. It just so happens that Wheatbread LLC’s subsidiary owns a patent for that too. And if you get rid of Wheatbread LLC, there will be someone else with a slightly different patent. You cannot make sandwiches without infringing someone’s patent.
You didn’t steal anyone’s idea’s. You just made sandwiches just like everyone else, including your mom, does.
But this is hypothetical. It would never happen, because no one issues patents for something as simple as how to assemble a sandwich. Unfortunately, this is the case with software patents. Billions of dollars are spent every year on software patents and the companies involved don’t sell anything. They are lawyers that have no idea how to program.
The result is the cost of software goes up, and some companies go completely out of business.
This affects everyone. Large companies spend millions if not billions on patents. They hire lawyers that develop strategies to defend themselves. It affects small companies who most often just pay to avoid the crushing pressure of court.
Make no mistake, these patent trolls are the modern mob. They force people to pay for “protection”.
Sign this petition, get the government to stop this insanity. They started it, they need to end it.
