Apple has confirmed that it is closing two stores located in the Eastern District of Texas, and opening at least one new one in a nearby Dallas shopping mall. The move seems to be related to the fact that most patent troll lawsuits occur in this district and by closing its stores there, Apple can avoid those lawsuits from being filed there.
Patent trolls are companies or individuals that register or buy technology patents only to sue companies. Often the patents are vague or cover an obvious idea. The Eastern District of Texas is known for giving favorable decisions to patent trolls. Apple says it will be offering jobs at the new store to existing employees, as well as other opportunities.
I wonder if it would be helpful to enact new patent restrictions. One such restriction could be:
"Patents cannot be used in litigation unless the patent owner is currently either manufacturing or selling items that use technology directly related to the patent." This would force patent trolls to expend resources prior to beginning litigation, making it infeasible to buy patents for the sole purpose of litigation.
What I don’t understand, how will Apple truncate or isolate this Trolling problem to just 2 stores in Texas. In other words, how will the lost of 2 Texas stores, immunize the remaining world wide Apple stores from this Trolling infection
Rick: It stops patent trolls from filing in that particular district, since Apple will no longer have a presence there. That is the district where almost all of those lawsuits are filed since it is the one that rules most in favor of the trolls. Some trolls will think twice about filing elsewhere as their whole strategy was to win money by taking advantage of that district's favorability. Other trolls will file elsewhere, but Apple will be more likely to defeat them.
Perhaps at some point the greedy lawyers will turn the other cheek and file lawsuits against one another. In other words beat these capitalist crooks at their own game.