While much of the industry lives in fear of a patent troll rearing its ugly head, Cognex has decided to take on trolls like Lemelson and Acacia, and has been spanking them on a regular basis.
As PJ at Groklaw notes, it's far too early to throw up our hands in despair at the dreaded patent trolls:
Imagine if [Cognex] had, instead, thrown up his hands, assumed there was no hope, said the patent system was a joke, the system totally corrupt, etc. and just paid for a license he knew, and as he later proved, he didn't need? Nobody needs it now. It's history. Thank you, Cognex. Cynics give up too easily, methinks.
Amen. What a great day it would be if everyone who believed themselves unfairly sued for patent infringement fought back. Imagine what would happen if companies like Microsoft were forced to back up their words about patent infringement, and then lost in court.
Eventually, the courts would clear out the riffraff. What a great day that would be.
I failed to see this last week, but Acacia Research, the patent troll that recently went after Red Hat and Novell, got its first day in court with a Texas jury and lost. Big time. It was seeking $900 million in damages, as paidContent notes, and instead got 35 percent of its stock price chopped.
I weep for Acacia. OK. Maybe not. Looking at this stock chart, I will admit that a smile has played across my face:
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