To achieve a decisive victory in these cases, Newegg typically has to take the defense of its case through a full trial and possibly an appeal.
People often fail to appreciate just how risky a trial can be. We stand on the sidelines and laugh at how absurd this or that flaky patent appears. And yet - and yet - the law itself went through a phase in which such patents were almost routinely granted. Standards may have tightened over time but, still, a patent claim in a hotly litigated case will not survive to trial unless it has been able to withstand a host of pretrial challenges by which a defendant has already asked a court to rule that the patent, as a matter of law, should not stand. It is only when a court tosses the patent claim in the pretrial phases that a defendant avoids the risk of a potentially absurdly high verdict after trial. If the claim survives such challenges, then the defendant has no choice but to settle or to play it out through trial while incurring just a risk of having a large verdict entered against it. This is the point at which most defendants - even large, deep-pocket defendants who can otherwise afford to pay the costs of defense - will fold. Newegg, on the other hand, has made the tough decisions, incurred the major risks, and largely managed to defeat such patents on the merits.
In doing so, it incurs the very large costs of defense typical in such cases. And it has the guts to take the potential liability risks of going through full trials to take the cases to verdict.
Large, institutional defendants have occasionally (though rarely) adopted such policies in the past. For example, over decades, GM adopted a policy of never settling injury claims if its own experts had determined that the GM autos were not at fault. In doing this, it would often incur defense costs that far exceeded the value of the claim being defended. But it did so to send a firm message to the plaintiff's bar that prosecuted such claims - that is, "if you want to sue GM, your case had better have merit - you will get no nuisance settlement from us."
Newegg effectively is delivering the same message but with an important twist. If GM successfully defended a particular injury claim, that ended the case for that claimant but had no preclusive effect on other, similar claims. If Newegg successfully defends and defeats a patent claim by having the patent declared invalid, the law of what the lawyers call "res judicata" (meaning, "a matter adjudged") kicks in and kills that patent off forever.
So, not only does Newegg take out the garbage, it makes sure it won't accumulate ever again.
This is a true public service for which we all must tip out hats.
To achieve a decisive victory in these cases, Newegg typically has to take the defense of its case through a full trial and possibly an appeal.
People often fail to appreciate just how risky a trial can be. We stand on the sidelines and laugh at how absurd this or that flaky patent appears. And yet - and yet - the law itself went through a phase in which such patents were almost routinely granted. Standards may have tightened over time but, still, a patent claim in a hotly litigated case will not survive to trial unless it has been able to withstand a host of pretrial challenges by which a defendant has already asked a court to rule that the patent, as a matter of law, should not stand. It is only when a court tosses the patent claim in the pretrial phases that a defendant avoids the risk of a potentially absurdly high verdict after trial. If the claim survives such challenges, then the defendant has no choice but to settle or to play it out through trial while incurring just a risk of having a large verdict entered against it. This is the point at which most defendants - even large, deep-pocket defendants who can otherwise afford to pay the costs of defense - will fold. Newegg, on the other hand, has made the tough decisions, incurred the major risks, and largely managed to defeat such patents on the merits.
In doing so, it incurs the very large costs of defense typical in such cases. And it has the guts to take the potential liability risks of going through full trials to take the cases to verdict.
Large, institutional defendants have occasionally (though rarely) adopted such policies in the past. For example, over decades, GM adopted a policy of never settling injury claims if its own experts had determined that the GM autos were not at fault. In doing this, it would often incur defense costs that far exceeded the value of the claim being defended. But it did so to send a firm message to the plaintiff's bar that prosecuted such claims - that is, "if you want to sue GM, your case had better have merit - you will get no nuisance settlement from us."
Newegg effectively is delivering the same message but with an important twist. If GM successfully defended a particular injury claim, that ended the case for that claimant but had no preclusive effect on other, similar claims. If Newegg successfully defends and defeats a patent claim by having the patent declared invalid, the law of what the lawyers call "res judicata" (meaning, "a matter adjudged") kicks in and kills that patent off forever.
So, not only does Newegg take out the garbage, it makes sure it won't accumulate ever again.
This is a true public service for which we all must tip out hats.