Surely it's not such a touch and go flip of a coin that determines which way a decision goes that brilliant exponents of law are required to sift through the opaque arcanities of esoteric guild rules.
Facts don't change by hiring supersonic experts at $1,000 an hour.
Trundle out the boring old facts and contracts and the judge quite easily comes to a decision which everyone agrees is very obvious and very logical, [and the judge didn't even need umpty $million to do it]. Though perhaps the other side of the case disagrees.
"So your worshipful honour, the contract says right here that Nokia will pay QCOM this //.redacted.// % of all the stuff they sell using these patents 35965, 59635, 53956 and 96535. As you can see from this document from Nokia, their GPRS, EDGE and GSM phones are using said ipso facto, inter alia, cassus belli, pro and en tanto patents and they haven't paid a brass razzoo!"
"That pretty much covers it, but they also have very dirty hands. Go on Ollila, hold your hands out and show her. See your honour? Filthy".
"We have got some other stuff such as these SETI rulz, but we think it's pretty much an open and shut case already".
"We are asking for all Nokia products to be banned from the USA until they pay $211bn in damages, penalties and late royalties."
$29 million and that's just the increase? Just how much do lawyers cost? That's 290 lawyers at $100,000 a year, or 600 at $50,000 a year. Each hot patent could just about get its own lawyer at that rate.
Maybe Art wasn't joking.
Mqurice |
