Patent Trolls

Patent Trolls

So anyone who knows me has most likely heard me reference Adam Carolla, Joe Rogan or Bill Burr.  They are all comedians I like, but they also produce podcasts I listen to.  The list goes on and on; The Film Vault for movies, Dan Carlin for insane stories about history, Dave Dameshek for sports, like I said on and on.  Whatever you’re into there are a million podcasts dedicated to it.  Some good, most bad but nonetheless I think they are here to stay.

I mention Carolla and Rogan because they are reasonably well known, making them huge targets for people wanting cash.  Carolla’s podcast is very popular, like millions of downloads and is being sued by “Personal Audio”, a company who successfully got some money from many companies, most notably Apple.  They are patent trolls.

The basic idea of a patent troll is best described by quoting that Adam Sandler movie where the bumbling idiot gets the girl in the end.  No, not Billy Madison, not Happy Gilmore, not Big Daddy or Little Nicky.  I’m taking about The Water Boy, the scene where he turns to his mom and asks;

“Mom, what year did Ben Franklin invent electricity?”

“Ben Franklin didn't invent electricity, I did.” was his mother’s response.

That’s basically what they do; they register a patent with vague wording related to something and proceed to sue people for infringement.  In most cases their patents are registered after the product already exists.

I won’t go into all the details about their primary goal of getting companies just to settle and shut them up (Apple) or their empty office in Texas to use local judges seeming friendlier to their cause.   Judges in Texas must be a whole different breed, they love god, America, the death penalty and people taking credit for shit they had nothing to do with all for money.  To steal a Stanhope line “that’s retarded, full on high back gurgler retarded.”

Long story getting longer is that Carolla isn’t gonna pay them, he’s rallying the masses and telling them to fuck off.  He is putting together a crowd funded effort because court costs are high, and since everything is bigger in Texas they are astronomical.

While nothing official has been announced yet the minute it is (realistically the day) I will donate for a form of entertainment I love and more importantly put a stop to a bunch of assholes trying to get something for nothing, and I suggest you do the same.