[fallingknife]

You have to talk to a lawyer. No one other than a IP attorney experienced in dealing with patent trolls will be able to give you accurate advice on this.

Also you should add "[ask HN]" to the beginning of your post.

edit: A good way to find a lawyer is to talk to good lawyers you have worked with in the past. They will not be able to help you themself if they practice in a different area, but will likely have referrals for someone who does.

[syedkarim]

I haven't had any luck with this approach. In some cases, the good-lawyer-you-know will respect the intellect of a lawyer from another firm that has a specialty in IP law. And then the referral will get passed down to an associate partner who is just overseeing the work of junior lawyers. In that scenario, the referral from the good-lawyer-you-know had no real value.

The other scenario is that the good-lawyer-you-know has a personal relationship with a practicing (as opposed to managing) IP lawyer. This may be a solo practitioner. But the problem with this approach is the the good-lawyer-you-know is relying on an instinctual assessment of the IP lawyer (I like this person; they seem smart), since the good-lawyer you know has not had a need to defend or litigate IP matters.

My experience comes from working with a dozen different lawyers, with many being rereferred. I have had $1200/hour partners provide me with factually incorrect information (wrong about actual black-and-white law). And I have had lawyers provide me with $20,000 legal briefs I did not authorize or order.

When it comes to litigation attorneys, I have had some success finding a lawyer through other founders who had been fighting lawsuits for years and hired/fired several lawyers to finally settle on the most competent. I have also had luck in finding legal specialists by becoming very well informed on the subject matter (reading lots of case law) and then interviewing random lawyers, who I usually came across through legal blog posts.

[foobarbazetc]

Lawyers, like any other profession, are 95% incompetent.

Finding the 5% that are competent is harder than it looks.

And the hourly rate and/or physical location of said lawyer bares no correlation to competence level.

And once you find that person they usually get scooped up and become GC for some VC funded startup or whatever because word travels.

[throwaway2037]

Are you saying that carpenters, electricians, pumblers, builders, cobblers, taxi drivers, nurses, and public school teachers are 95% incompetant? If so, please kindly provide anecdata. This is a positively ridiculous acusation.

[mywittyname]

My partner is a nurse by trade and has observed negligent behavior by medical professions every single time we've been to a hospital. Most of the time it is minor, but there have been times where she's had to speak up and get supervisors involved.

I'd say that "95% of people exhibit incompetence at least once per shift" is not far from the truth. I've been in taxis where the driver has run redlights. I built a house so I know all about keeping tradesman honest.

[cutemonster]

It's worse with lawyers, in that mistakes they make can go unnoticed for years or forever, so bad lawyers can still bring in lots of money to the company that provides them to you. Or so I think.

And the same with doctors, unfortunately, when they don't meet the person they treated again, when there's no follow up if it worked or not.

Plumbers, though, are different, in that then there's more feedback: does the water pipe still leak, or not? So they need to do something that actually works.

[admissionsguy]

I think if we relax the statement a bit, to something like

"95% of all workers perform at the bare minimum required not to get fired or sued."

- it becomes quite defensible. To someone used to high performance, that does look like incompetence.

Also, it is much harder to fake it in typical trades than in "professions".

[belter]

Agree. The same applies by the way, to International Tax Advisers and specially if you are doing business across several countries in EU.

I paid 200 to 300 dollars per hour for International Tax Consultants, that were unable to understand the most common cross country tax scenarios, like "triangular taxation". At the same time, very cheap and experienced "regular accountants" provided, clear, concise and correct advice.

[foobarbazetc]

Yeah, funnily enough my experience is based on international tax advice.

No one actually knows anything about this, save for like 3 people world wide for each country pair.

Lawyers will happily bill you for incorrect advice because their liability is limited to the amount invoiced. But you can end up with massive tax bills based on that bad advice.

You can do better by reading the law and tax treaties yourself, then getting someone to verify your interpretation.

Law is just code for humans.

[foobarbazetc]

Also yes to good accountants.

A lot of things you can pay a lawyer for business/tax/etc wise, your accountant can probably do better and cheaper.

Accountants are under-appreciated. lol.

[jacobkg]

In my experience physicians are not 95% incompetent. Is there something inherently different about law from medicine? Or is more like how 95% of physicians couldn’t help you with a specific problem because it’s outside their specialty?

[foobarbazetc]

As someone who went through a tonne of so-called medical experts for a chronic condition I can say that, based on my experience, most people involved in medicine are incompetent. lol.

You just have to bounce around until you hit someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.

[cutemonster]

@foobarbazetc I and some others I know, share your experiences. This is in north western Europe btw.

[stinos]

A good way to find a lawyer is to talk to good lawyers you have worked with in the past.

I.e. none for me. Is it that common to have worked with lawyers then? I honestly wouldn't know how to find a good lawyer. I don't even think I know anyone in person who ever needed a lawyer (not sure - it's not something which comes up often in conversations).

[lazide]

The alternative in my experience is to build a spreadsheet, take notes for each one, and start cold calling every lawyer you can find who specializes in the area. 10-15 at a minimum.

You’ll be using these consultations to learn the area and evaluate who you are dealing with, their style/approach, and level of competence. Ask a lot of questions.

Things like 1) do they personally have experience with cases like this? 2) how did those cases end? 3) can they provide references? (If they start saying ‘no because attorney client priviledge’ they are generally bullshitting you. Don’t fall for it. Run fast the other way.) 4) which legal principles are in play in your case, and what are the risks or advantages you have?

Then do your independent research on #4 so you can evaluate yourself what is going on. Figure on this taking a week of solid work.

Most lawyers will provide consultations for free as part of their public service obligations under the bar rules in many states. Some won’t. I haven’t had any luck with the ones who charge for consultations, and have had in some cases terrible advice (like just flat wrong in black and white areas of the law), that cost me major money when I relied on it.

[duped]

Most state bar associations have a website where you can search for whatever specialty you might need. You can also talk to your investors for advice, or ask around your community for recommendations.

[fallingknife]

It's pretty common for someone doing business in the US. Do you have any friends from school who are lawyers? That could be a good start. Or someone else you know who has been involved in litigation. A Google search for IP lawyers in your area couldn't hurt either. You can usually get a little bit of free advice over the phone too.

[stinos]

Maybe the thing is I'm not in the US but in Western Europe. I'm not sure if it's representative but from seeing US movies/series (in so far those are representative), reading other comments here etc I do get the impression there's more of a 'lawyer up' culture in the US than here. Plus I'm perhaps also in the 'wrong' bubble. I.e. most people I know who own a business are simple one-man companies / contract workers, myself included and we don't have to deal with legal stuff ever. Which just makes me realize: I do have an accountant and he would obviously know laywers.

[ghaff]

Your accountant probably knows lawyers. He may not know patent lawyers however.

[jblake]

You are not alone!

[ghaff]

You specifically need a patent/IP lawyer. Someone else mentioned the EFF. You might also try the Software Freedom Law Center. They're specifically focused on open source but they might be able to point you in an appropriate direction.

[zoobab]

Président of FFII.org here, we received several requests from small companies here in Europe. You can contact me at zoobab at gmail.com. We are now busy with the 3rd attempt to impose software patents in the EU via the UPC.

[jblake]

I've never worked with a lawyer before. How do I pick one? Should I pick one in my state - Nevada? Should I post the case details here? I guess I was hoping someone on HN had a connection or is an IP lawyer themself, as I have no idea how to pick a lawyer and no idea how much this could cost.

[lvspiff]

Go here and get a referral: https://nvbar.org/for-the-public/find-a-lawyer/lrs/

You will likely schedule a time to sit down and discuss the letter and they might give you some indications of how to proceed.

At that point if you want to continue forward a "retainer" fee will be collected. It could be thousands.

From there good luck!

[takinola]

You can also see a lawyer you want to reach out to has been reviewed by previous clients

https://www.avvo.com/

[scruffyherder]

First challenge on any and all lawsuits is diversity. Since you are the one being sued it better be Nevada, otherwise your lawyer will answer with a diversity challenge saying you don’t do business where it was filed and ask for the case to be moved.

Get ready for so many continuances and discovery requests. Do not delete anything, purposeful deletions can be taken as an admission of guilt.

But I’m clearly not your lawyer or a lawyer just someone who has been sued.

They always want to settle for precedent. Prior art is a harder thing than it should be, but you better find out everyone else they sued and make contact, assuming they aren’t gagged.

Sadly courts don’t slammed down enough people as vexatious litigants, so here we are.

[diffstrokes]

I work with a firm that has IP lawyers, they are mediocre and very expensive. I recommend calling local private practice IP lawyers and briefly describe your situation and ask for a 2 hour consult. Speak with as many as possible and hire the one who seems the most helpful.

[MattGaiser]

> Also you should add "[ask HN]" to the beginning of your post.

I thought that was automatically appended? Just seemingly not in this case possibly because it doesn't end with a question mark.

[codefined]

Nope, just convention.