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Divine e-commerce patents
Divine inc. is a company that bought a set of e-commerce patents in 2002 and sent a very large number of threat letters to web site operators, demanding payment of patent royalties.
Contents
Paying is cheaper than defending yourself
Divine inc. asked website operators to pay US$10,000 to US$20,000 for use of its patents.
One company, Multimedia Live, estimated that defending itself in court would cost US$250,000 to US$300,000, so they paid the demand.[1]
The financial director of Thompson and Morgan, on why they paid the demand:
- "It was commercially sensible, and cheaper, for us to settle. We had to take into account the time and costs if management had gone to the US to fight Divine's claims, as well as US attorney fees."[2]
Related pages on ESP Wiki
External links
- A sample of a threat letter sent by Divine, plus some questions and answers
- Divine Inc. extracts dotcom tithe from UK firm
