Re: [tlug] Patents[[sic]] gone wrong?

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 29/08/06, burlingk@example.com <burlingk@example.com> wrote:

> Maybe that is more of a threat than the laws themselves.  Precedents
> sometimes mean more in courts than actual laws.  If every time things
> get near a court date, the defendant turns and runs, then eventually
> what the media SAYS the law is, will be the law.

I agree with your point, but not your wording. *Legal* precedents mean
a lot in court, since laws must be interpreted, at least to some
degree. Especially if the laws are not well-written in the first
place.

Precedents in the sense of conventional wisdom can mean more than the
actual law, but just because people threatened with lawsuits often do
not retain a lawyer, but just assume that they will lose in court.
Which is what you meant, of course.

-Josh