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I'm reminded of how Newegg and Cloudflare have dealt with this kind of thing.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/11/the-hunted-becomes-the-hun...

At one time at least they seemed to view it as a fight to the death. When offered a settlement they'd just keep going.



Unfortunately, however, looks like the nice people[1] at Blackbird still keep on working their stuff, so it was not a fight to the death.

https://www.blackbird-tech.com/blackbird-technologies-settle...

[1]that was sarcasm.


They patented a switch?? How can this patent pass the basic check?


And Blue Jeans Cable's 2008 response to a Monster Cable demand letter: The CEO of BlueJeans was an ex-litigator; excerpt:

<quote>

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985, I spent nineteen years in litigation practice, with a focus upon federal litigation involving large damages and complex issues. My first seven years were spent primarily on the defense side, where I developed an intense frustration with insurance carriers who would settle meritless claims for nuisance value when the better long-term view would have been to fight against vexatious litigation as a matter of principle. In plaintiffs' practice, likewise, I was always a strong advocate of standing upon principle and taking cases all the way to judgment, even when substantial offers of settlement were on the table.

I am "uncompromising" in the most literal sense of the word. If Monster Cable proceeds with litigation against me I will pursue the same merits-driven approach; I do not compromise with bullies and I would rather spend fifty thousand dollars on defense than give you a dollar of unmerited settlement funds.

As for signing a licensing agreement for intellectual property which I have not infringed: that will not happen, under any circumstances, whether it makes economic sense or not.

I say this because my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion. Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is a quickie negotiation session that ends with payment and a licensing agreement. Your client then uses this collection of licensing agreements to convince others under similar threat to accede to its demands.

Let me be clear about this: there are only two ways for you to get anything out of me. You will either need to (1) convince me that I have infringed, or (2) obtain a final judgment to that effect from a court of competent jurisdiction.

It may be that my inability to see the pragmatic value of settling frivolous claims is a deep character flaw, and I am sure a few of the insurance carriers for whom I have done work have seen it that way; but it is how I have done business for the last quarter-century and you are not going to change my mind.

If you sue me, the case will go to judgment, and I will hold the court's attention upon the merits of your claims--or, to speak more precisely, the absence of merit from your claims--from start to finish.

Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it.

</quote>

(Extra paragraphing added.)

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/legal/mcp/response041408.pdf


Drawing a line in the sand and threatening mutual destruction is a good way to make the trolls move one to an easier target.




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