Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by robert-graham 1144 days ago
Remember that SRI is a patent troll. They are non-practicing entity. They don't build the things they "invent". They instead write patents then extort the people who do build things.

I say this from personal experience. I created many inventions in "intrusion detection", spent years in data centers making theory work in practice. SRI sued me using vaguely worded patents.

It's a harsh accusation, but objectively true. They never built a commercial intrusion-detection product, but they did sue people.
3 comments
mlyle 1144 days ago
All academic and research institutes tend to accumulate patents and weaponize them. It's not fair to characterize SRI as a "non-practicing entity". Aside from all the things they build for defense / NSF, they did invent this thing called "Siri" that a lot of people use.

> They never built a commercial intrusion-detection product

No, but they did give away things like Bothunter away (which is admittedly HIDS).

I'm sympathetic to the argument against patents, etc. I was your competitor in the IDS space and also made a very fast IDS and exited, and also was harassed by people without a product in the market (over sending TCP RSTs to close connections, of all things, where there was loads of prior art).

link
AlbertCory 1144 days ago
"patent troll" -- I hate those as much as you do, but I wouldn't call SRI one. All patents have the broadest language the lawyers could get through the PTO.

Wow, do the lawyers over on Reddit hate this! In the Appendix, you can follow the progress of a recent Facebook patent:

https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/lets-vote-on-it

I do tend to be inflammatory at times /s

link
AlbertCory 1144 days ago
"non-practicing entity" usually means some company that's only formed to sue people, and has no other business. After it's collected the money, it goes out of business, so there are no assets to recover from them. Often their "office" is just a PO box in East Texas.

SRI is a real research entity. I know someone who worked there, and he's not a lawyer. That doesn't make them any more admirable, of course.

link