The Patent Scam Intro

I most admire and I wrote a flight simulator called explain explain is a computer program that lets pilots practice flying their airplanes and their home computers so they can fly the real airplane more safely also it lets people that aren't pilots at all see what it would be like to enjoy the thrill of flight some years ago I decided to make a version of X plane for the Google Android operating system this way people with Google Android phones could enjoy flying imaginary airplanes on their phone just like any developer would I uploaded that version of X plane to the Google Play Store people downloaded it and loved it some time went by and then it happened I was sued by a company called Yuna Locke you'd a lot claim to own the patent for the Google Play Store and because they claimed on the patent or the idea of the Google Playstore they were suing myself and many other companies simply for using it you know Locke had nothing to do with the creation of the Google Playstore you know Locke had nothing to do with the creation of X plane I never even heard of Yuna Locke before I got the lawsuit but that didn't matter they were suing me and many other companies simply for using the Google Playstore claiming to own the idea of it you so what is this patent exactly that they hold this exactly is the claim in the patent that you lock said we infringed on that's it that's the claim computer code executable on an electronic device to prevent unauthorized access to electronic data stored on the electronic device that doesn't have one bit of source code that doesn't have one bit of useful information those words are no use to any developer computer programmer all those words do is say that if anyone else uses an online store then they have to pay the patent holder money because the patent holder wrote down the general idea that someone else went to the trouble to actually enable you no lock is owned by a larger group called the marathon patent group the marathon patent group is a company traded on the Nasdaq whose only source of income is suing people for patent infringement imagine a company traded on the Nasdaq the stock exchange that's supposed to help the development of technology companies whose only mission is to sue people for creating and using technology it seems like the marathon patent groups goal isn't a foster innovation but to destroy it so what type of patents are these companies using to sue people well most people think that if you have a patent that must mean that you thought of something amazing because the Pandavas wouldn't approve the patent any other way well here's a look at some actual patents that the United States Patent Office has actually approved you so this is what the United States Patent Office approves routinely you and now that we see what the United States Patent Office routinely approves it should be no surprise that you know Locke was able to get their flimsy patent past the Patent Office get it approved and then start rolling out the lawsuits as a result of that failing at the Patent Office the lawsuit against me over these words has been dragging on now for over four years and there's no end in sight my daughter was one year old when I got this lawsuit she's five now and she's grown up always under the threat of having her future taken away from her to be handed to a lawyer in Texas that's suing me for using the Google store that's right this case just filed in the Eastern District of Texas I live in South Carolina but I'm going to be put on trial in front of a jury in the Eastern District of Texas to defend myself for committing the crime of using the Google Playstore the judge assigned to this case was a man by the name of Leonard Davis judge Leonard Davis of the Eastern District of Texas has a history of almost never throwing out patent trolling lawsuits has a history of almost never making patent trolls pay the legal fees of the people they sue frivolously as I was researching these cases I found another judges name that kept coming up John Ward John Ward also had a history of almost never tossing out patent trolling lawsuits of almost never making patent trolls pay for the damage they were doing why why wouldn't the judges toss out this endless stream of frivolous lawsuits flowing into the Eastern District of Texas meet Bo Davis Bo Davis is a lawyer also in the Eastern District of Texas that represents patent trolls and their victims meet Johnny Ward Johnny Ward is a lawyer in the Eastern District of Texas that represents patent trolls and their victims I think you might see it now Bo Davis is Judge Leonard Davis's son Johnny Ward is Judge John Ward's son the lawyers are the sons of the judges so if judge Leonard Davis and John Ward can encourage more patent trolls to bring more lawsuits in their Eastern District of Texas and then never toss out the cases never grant any motion to transfer to a different venue it's their sons that will rack up the billable hours a lawyer named Stephen Hill of a law firm called Hill courser and Wharton in Atlanta Georgia has sued people for using scanners claiming that his client owns the patent on using scanners not creating scanners using scanners Steve he'll set up some dummy corporations to hide his clients identity so that nobody could find out who is actually behind the lawsuits imagine going to a law firm and saying hey I want to sue people for using scanners but I don't anybody to find out who I am while it's happening what can we do about that and the lawyer saying oh we'll just set up some dummy corporations to hide your identity while we send out the lawsuits no one will find out who you are while we rack in the settlements and countless people have been sued or threatened to be sued for using a scanner since then including by the way a company called Cobb Pediatric Therapy a small company that helps disabled children and then there's lots of other cases like this as well a lawyer named Raymond nairo has sued people for using Wi-Fi Raymond claims to own the patent on how to use Wi-Fi not creating Wi-Fi using Wi-Fi of course Raymond nairo a lawyer in Chicago had nothing to do with the creation of Wi-Fi but that doesn't stop him from suing people for using it I interviewed Raymond nairo said listen you're using this guy's invention you've got to pay him a royalty no I'm not going to Pam what do we do I go to you and I say what you want to do so you know I want to stop him I wanted to pay me they're stealing my property they came to my house and took my goods they went on my farm and took my animals they infringe my patent they took my property I say ok I'll help you if it's meritorious I'll help you is there something wrong with that is that on American is that wrong I don't get it last time I checked when you take somebody's property they have the right to come after you and say stop we're forgetting here patents our property they're issued by the governor if I have a patent for Wi-Fi that's specific and is useful and novel then yeah it's my property and if you infringe it you have to pay me a license fee so those are the lawyers but what about the businesses behind the lawsuits maybe the lawyers are representing thriving bustling businesses helping with innovation as the lawyers claim is that really the case to find out I found the first 55 patent infringement lawsuits I could find in the Eastern District of Texas hopped in my single-engine airplane and went there here's the while an office as far as I can tell so we can come and see why don't we bring the camera around and see what's see what's going on in this office here this is uh just a few days after they received 33 million dollars for patents and this is in the middle of the day on the Thursday let's keep going here we have per diem Co per diem Co filed a patent-infringement lawsuit hello Oh we'll keep walking they come out we'll go talk to him this is the office listed for a company called LOD sis and if anybody wants to travel to Marshall Texas and see it for themselves we're at 505 East Travis Street laud sis is well known as being one of the biggest patent assertion entities in the world they sue a lot of people for patent infringement this is their address hello and they claim to be from Marshall Texas where we are now keep walking here we have a company called packet intelligence they have filed two lawsuits for patent infringement look we've been walking up and down these holes about 25 minutes now looking for for anyone and no one's been here but a large number of kinda infringement lawsuits come out of this whole way well I guess we'll hear the next address it's been empty for we looked at that space because when we moved in here it's been a big ones in their office today no one's in there today oh maybe knock on the door no one's down there okay this is the address I used for a lawsuit for patent infringement that quali code filed how about late Cherokee hard drive Henry see cam I know this is just an account for when we do thee oh I see what about blue bonnet telecommunications same thing what about star code LED technologies I'll say oh they're not actually no you know the only end here is a and G will be are these companies here and I'm serve as a registered agent I see they are located in East Texas can you say where when I went up Sui 1504 I saw a company called Collins investigations I said these companies are filing lawsuits it cost three million dollars to defend against and they're all based right here in your office that's about 15 feet wide what's going on they said well patents are property just like anything else and I have no further comment and that's when they showed me the door and closed the door in my face and this is the next thing I saw jellyfish technology of Texas in motion LLC arcs our LLC Marshall feature recognition LLC Hopewell culture dollar-sign design while an technologies specialized monitoring solutions LLC all these companies they've all filed patent infringement lawsuits and they're all the exact same address what is that address well here we are at the courthouse look across the street and we see 104 East Houston Street across the street from the courthouse let's go see what we see wait nothing there McCool Smith sounds like a law firm a Hartfield law firm the pool Smith sounds like a law firm whoo Poole Smith sounds like a law firm so here we are at specialized monitoring solutions when I google them spine lawsuits they filed patent infringement lawsuits specialized monitoring solutions versus Siemens versus Johnson versus united technology versus Honeywell International versus Schneider Electric USA versus our MC integration versus Emison network power list goes on all I can find specialized monitoring solutions is the patent infringement lawsuits they see through anyone there so we're here at 211 West Tyler on it's an address that a lot of lawsuits come from there doesn't seem to be anybody here so this company has been suing Intel Dell HP yet as far as what they produce well their office is kind of this kind of rundown place the blackout shades and curtain behind it when I look up a locked media loft media sues ten cause over whether patents aloft media Sue's si P over a messaging patent aloft Media LLC versus Yahoo Adobe Microsoft accused of infringing on browser related patents you're wondering where these patent infringement lawsuits are coming from if it's from aloft or strange and/or Azur this is it so those are the so-called businesses that are behind these patent trolling lawsuits shell companies hiding behind fake addresses and abandoned office buildings so when I tell people about this they say things like hey Austin if you know lock has a problem with the Google store why don't they just sue Google not all the people that are using Google well here's the thing about that if you know lock were to sue Google then you know lock would probably lose because Google can defend itself remember these cases cost about three million dollars to defend but if you know locks use all the people that use Google think of the settlements they can rack up almost nobody can afford the three million dollar defense fee so they're forced to settle some people say oh Austin you should counter sue you know lock get your money back well counter sue them for what you and a lot creates no goods they create no services they don't do anything what can you sue them for when they haven't actually done anything as well since patent trolls are typically shell corporations whatever money they take in they rapidly distribute into their own pockets leaving their company an empty shell even if you get a judgment against a patent troll the company simply folds up there's nothing left to collect all the money's been drained out of the company by the company owners some people say oh gosh this is a terrible thing that happens in America I would just move to another country to get away from it minor problem with that several companies that are in the same lawsuit that I am in for using the Google store are from England or Sweden including initially Mojang their creators of Minecraft so these companies outside of the USA are still being dragged into the court in Eastern District of Texas you can't escape patent trolling just by leaving United States this is a little virus that comes through the Eastern District of Texas to infect the entire planet you can't escape it by crossing a national boundary patent trolls routinely file lawsuits internationally Mojang ultimately one of the companies who was sued alongside me was recently purchased by Microsoft and Microsoft proceeded to pay yuna lock off Microsoft could defend themself but chose not to now partially as a result of that the patent trolls are going to start coming after more and more small businesses that cannot defend themselves so this happens all the time the question is why don't you already know it and here's the answer the patent troll once he sued you will only let the lawsuit against you stop if you sign what's called a non-disclosure agreement this is an agreement that says you will never tell anyone what happened to you so when a patent troll starts suing you he won't let the lawsuit against you stop until you promise to never tell anyone what happened and that is why patent trolling happens all the time but this might be the first time you've ever heard about it my name is Colleen Chen I'm a professor at Santa Clara University Law School I teach students about patents intellectual property this was supposed to get solved in something call I think the innovation Act and I think it was Harry Reid stopped it from ever being voted on or so I heard is that true well takes a lot of things for a bill to become a law and so even though this got the overwhelming support of the house and was voted very strong out of there there that never made it out of committee in the Senate side because Harry Reid purportedly said over my dead body that this would be actually you know discussed and that was because of his support from the trial lawyers so much for American okay um now I really had footage it yeah it makes you want to strangle Harry Reid so yeah I mean you want like you can say reportedly I don't know you said report I did okay all right so in summary these are what patents actually are this is the patent I'm being sued for for using the Google store these are the businesses that file the lawsuits the real owners hidden behind shell companies this is the government response to attempts to fix the system and this is a lawmaker that stopped reform the last time we could have fixed this so what's next well using Wi-Fi using scanners using the Google store these are just a few two things that patent trolls are currently suing people for doing if I lose my lawsuit then you know Locke will obviously use that as their justification to sue more people for using the Google store in the future first they rack up the settlements then they use those settlements as a justification to file more lawsuits saying hey the last guys paid us so you need to as well so not surprisingly patent trolling increases over time you can see from this chart how fast it's growing and as you may be able to predict particularly if you start a small business they're coming after you next you

Channel: Austin Meyer

Views: 460,466

Keywords: MARA, marathon patent group, patent trolls, patent, x-plane, austin meyer, austin, meyer

Id: sG9UMMq2dz4

Length: 21min 36sec (1296 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 14 2016