My research and discussions with lawyers resulted in learning that a typical
software patent costs at least $8000 in recording and legal fees just to
record and the costs go up from there. A software patent can cost at minimum
several hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend in the courts which must
be done or the claim of ownership by law is lost automatically.
When a small software developer wants to take a claim to court because they
are being infringed by a large corporate thieves or a group well funded by
corporate thieves the first thing the corporate thieves do is bankrupt the
software developer using 'depositions' ( a formal means the courts require
to record verbal statements and put other documentation into the official
record ).
Here in America which for the most part has become a totalitarian facist
nation, the depositions must by facist law be conducted by commercial
services that are approved and 'certified' by the courts. Because there is
no ability to depose other than pay the facist's the 'official' depostion
service providers charge about $800-$1000 a day each and every day just to
show up for work.
Each deposition costs additional hundreds and in some cases thousands of
dollars apiece. The corporate pigs will call dozens of 'witnesses' to depose
themselves for such silly sh!t such as being officially asked "have you ever
heard of the software product called ______ ?" They will stretch a
deposition for 2-3 days asking silly questions like that.
That question alone can cost the software developer hundreds of dollars in
'service provider' fees and the daily fees bankrupt the software developer.
This has been my experience trying to use the facist American 'justice
system' seeking justice after discovering my architectural drawings were
stolen by a group of corporate pigs who took my drawings and used them to
build the project without involving or compensating me.
In fact, I am going through this same battle of David vs Goliath again at
this very moment because a group of corporate thieves have stolen the use of
my trademark/service mark.
Realistically, I probably have no hope of retaining my trademark/service
mark -- the name of the regional information service I started in 1997 --
METROmilwaukee -- is the trademark/service mark I have used for interstate,
intrastate, and global commerce while working to invest in and develop the
regional information service. Now a group of wealthy corporate thieves want
the name and will almost certainly be allowed to steal the name from me for
use to market their own information services via a TLD Internet domain which
infringes on the use of my trademark/service mark.
There is no way any small software developer can hope to cope in a world of
corruption where justice is determined by how much money can be pissed away
within a corrupt court system.
So I disagree -- strongly -- the corrupt legal system is not accessible to
most of us and is therefor no a considerable strategy to protect one's work
unless you are very wealthy.
--
<%= Clinton Gallagher d/b/a METROmilwaukee
METROmilwaukee "Regional Information Services"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL
http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/