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The Patent Scam Intro

Austin Meyer · 463.5K views · 2016-06-14 · 21:37

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Overview

Austin Meyer, developer of the X-Plane flight simulator, explains how he was sued by a patent troll over a trivial claim about an app's license server. He walks through how the shell-company litigation works and why ignoring the suit makes things worse.

On Hacker News

HN commenters pass it around as an eye-opening first-hand account of patent trolling and the Texas courts that favor it.

Recommended by 6 HN people across 6 months · HN mentions 2016–2022

Topics

Law, policing & justiceSoftware practice, open source & careersStartups & entrepreneurship
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patent trollssoftware patentslitigationx-planeeastern district of texas

What people said

clamprecht · 2017-03 · Strong recommendation

This video from Austin Meyer (creator of X-Plane) is pretty eye-opening: [VIDEO] Apparently there are TWO judges in the district, BOTH of whose own sons are lawyers in the same district. And BOTH sons handle a lot of the patent litigation, in front of their own fathers, the judges. Pretty incredible. Watch the video starting at about 5 minutes to see it.

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rdtsc · 2016-08 · Strong recommendation

This is great. Would like to see more of these kinds of efforts. Just watched The Patent Scam video by Austin Meyer (developer of X-Plane flight sim who was sued by patent trolls). [VIDEO] That kind of stuff makes my blood boil.

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zubspace · 2021-07 · Recommendation

Just watched this video [1] by someone who got sued because his "android app uses a license server". Those patent troll shell companies sue one victim after another and forward the incoming money to other companies. So there's no use in going after them directly. The victim can negotiate better terms if he signs a non-disclosure agreement. The patent trolls are protected by politicians, judges and lawyers. [1] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Austin Meyer, played through YouTube.

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