I’ve written before about the dangers of messing around with Jim [1, 2]. The reference is to a wonderful Jim Croce song explaining the dangers of messing around with a bad man by the name of Big Jim Walker. The two posts above are about Sabel Networks (a patent troll) messing around with Cloudfare by bringing frivolous patent suits against them.
Cloudfare was not amused and offered a bounty on prior art for not only the claimed patents but for all of Sabel’s patents. They demolished Sabel at trial and in the end Sabel agreed to
- Pay Cloudfare $225,000.
- Donate all its patents to the public
If other big companies would take the same principled stand that Cloudfare does, we could put an end to these parasites. Sadly most companies find it cheaper and easier to settle, which is why patent trolls continue to prosper.
In any event, Croce had it right. You don’t mess around with Jim.