Comments on: The DV Show Podcast for November 9, 2009 http://www.thedvshow.com/the-dv-show-podcast-for-november-9-2009/ The DV Show - Digital Video Podcast, Video Editing, Camcorder Reviews, Videography Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:19:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: rbESQ http://www.thedvshow.com/the-dv-show-podcast-for-november-9-2009/#comment-3283 rbESQ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:28:20 +0000 http://www.thedvshow.com/?p=6408#comment-3283 My clients sue infringers when there is a sound business reason to do so. They do NOT regard infringment law suits as profit centers (I tell them not to do this). This is the calculus that they employ: if the value of the intellectual property right to be protected exceeds the cost of litigation, then it is worth it to sue. Accordingly, they will sue to protect their copyright or trademark, sue to send a message to other potential or actual infringers, or even sue to send a message to their competitors. Do not, for one minute, think that because you are, essentially, judgement proof, i.e. "Hey, what could they get from me?", that you won't get sued. The last big action I took to final judgment was against a relatively small-time infringer, at least in comparison with my client. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain a 3.5 million dollar verdict against him (he was pretty blatant, and we got intentional infringement damages, as well as attorneys fees), knowing from day one that he would never be able to pay it. It was, however, in my client's _business_ interests to do so. My clients sue infringers when there is a sound business reason to do so. They do NOT regard infringment law suits as profit centers (I tell them not to do this).

This is the calculus that they employ: if the value of the intellectual property right to be protected exceeds the cost of litigation, then it is worth it to sue. Accordingly, they will sue to protect their copyright or trademark, sue to send a message to other potential or actual infringers, or even sue to send a message to their competitors. Do not, for one minute, think that because you are, essentially, judgement proof, i.e.

“Hey, what could they get from me?”, that you won’t get sued. The last big action I took to final judgment was against a relatively small-time infringer, at least in comparison with my client. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain a 3.5 million dollar verdict against him (he was pretty blatant, and we got intentional infringement damages, as well as attorneys fees), knowing from day one that he would never be able to pay it. It was, however, in my client’s _business_ interests to do so.

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