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by kintamanimatt 4570 days ago
Also, America doesn't have a "loser pays" system, otherwise known as the English Rule. Both parties are responsible for their own costs whether they win or lose under the American Rule. This means that just the threat of a lawsuit is an automatic expense, and winning in court also means losing, just losing less severely. This is generally why parties are so keen to settle, even if they believe they could win in court so as to limit their losses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_rule_%28attorney%27s_f...
1 comments
jonasvp 4570 days ago
It took a while for me to understand why the threat of a lawsuit is so terrifying in the States. It seemed absurd for both parties to pay even if one is clearly in the wrong. I still don't understand why people are defending this system or only changing it piecemeal for certain cases (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_publ...).

Here in Germany, losers pay and the cost for lawyers is calculated by the amount the argument is about. This way, you can't bankrupt someone by winning a minor argument in court using extremely expensive lawyers.

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kintamanimatt 4570 days ago
This is why software patents are such an evil. If you've been granted a software patent it's fairly easy to shake down someone that's allegedly infringing because it's cheaper to pay the amount demanded than it is to litigate. For this very reason, a tactic used by some patent trolls is to go after small companies that they know can afford the "license fee" but can't afford to fight back in court. Lodsys are well-known for this.

Some companies with deep pockets are now fighting back at patent trolls to make it as expensive for them to do business as possible, and possibly even invalidating the patent in question. Regular ol' software companies obviously can't afford this, as it comes with price tag in the millions.

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derleth 4569 days ago
> Here in Germany, losers pay and the cost for lawyers is calculated by the amount the argument is about.

Then I could be safe from lawsuits in Germany if I confined my evil acts to things that were about too little money for the lawyers to be interested in going after?

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