Week 11 - TED Talks #2

Hi everyone! Continuing with our trend for TED Talks, I wanted to link another interesting TED Talk regarding patents to this video here! It's actually revisiting a topic that we talked about a LOT in the previous weeks - patent trolls 

Find the video linked here:

This TED Talk was given by Drew Curtis, who is a law professor at the University of Missouri. What I have noticed is that a lot of those who are experts on patents are trained in law and have practiced in patent litigation for a number of years, and it easy to see why doing this would allow them to understand what is happening in the world of patents, especially with trends like "patent trolls."

His whole TED Talk was on his "strategy" for how he was able to defeat a patent troll that was trying to sue his news media company for a patent infringement. His whole mantra is that you should "not negotiate with terrorists." Drew brought up shocking statistics where he was able to prove that the costs from patent trolls on the US Economy > cost of terrorists on US soil. This really shows us how much monetary damage is ensuing because of these patent trolls. Overall, these are the key strategies to use:

1. Don’t fight the patent, fight the infringement – it’s a lot easier to prove that you haven’t infringed.
2. Either say you have no money, or that you’d rather spend money fighting the troll instead of giving it to them. Patent trolls need to recover their money, and if they’re less convinced they’ll get anything they are no longer interested in pursuing the case.
3. Tell them you will make this process as annoying and painful and difficult for them. These are the strategies a patent troll will use on you, but they need a quick return so it works really well when you reverse it.

Seems like really helpful advice considering that how ruthless patent trolls are!