Patent trolls have plagued tech companies for years -- but a new web site proposes a novel solution. "Everyone in the world can back the crowdfunding campaign against the patent," explains their site, which includes a "Featured stupid patents" section. After covering the cost of the fees for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a lawyer, "The rest is distributed to those who find valid prior art...any evidence that a patent is not novel. We review all the prior art pieces and reward those that may invalidate a claim... Then, we file an ex partes reexamination to the USPTO."
The site's founders include the legal officer at Newegg, who has been fighting patent trolls in the courts for years -- and they came up with a great slogan for the site. "We invalidate patents that shouldn't exist."
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Tuesday September 20 2016, @03:33AM
On January 23, 2015 a patent infringement lawsuit was filed by Alphacap Ventures LLC against multiple crowdfunding platforms, including Indiegogo, CircleUp, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Gust, RocketHub & Innovational Funding, for three patents — US 7848976, US 7908208 and US 8433630. According to Bloomberg, Alphacap Ventures is a company that provides strategic, operations, and financial advisory services in the United States along with other financial services.
--https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickstarter [wikipedia.org]
http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2015/07/71338-whatever-happened-to-the-crowdfunding-patent-lawsuit/ [crowdfundinsider.com]
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/6686355/AlphaCap_Ventures_LLC_v_Angelsoft_LLC_dba_Gust [pacermonitor.com]