Blog 11: How To Beat a Patent Troll - Drew Curtis

The founder and administrator of Fark.com, Drew Curtis, gives a TED Talk where he calls patent trolls as "terrorists."Overcoming the lawcase of Fark violating a patent "for the creation and distribution of news releases via email," he uses his experience in facing down a patent troll at a TED Talk. He calls patent trolls as "terrorists" as he believes patent trolls have done more damage than any domestic or foreign terrorists in history of the United States economy. 

In the beginning of the speech, he marks off the nature of the patent of being accused of violating, he says "now it may seem kind of strange that such a thing can actually be patented, but it does happen all the time. Take something already being done and patent it for an emerging technology." 

He goes on to say about his experience and explains how he wished to team up with other larger companies that were being sued like him, but eventually one by one they all settled than fought the suit. He gives an advice to the audiences, "don't fight the patent. Fight the infringement." Then, he goes on to his second advice, saying "make it clear from the beginning that you haven o money at all or that you would rather send money with your attorney, fighting the troll than actually giving them the money." 

In his final advise, he says to make sure to tell them that you are going to make the whole process as annoying as possible. Since the lawyers are on the contingency basis, flip the patent troll strategy back on the trolls themselves. He finally sums it all, saying "don't negotiate with terrorists"