Not What You Want to Hear: That Legal Case!

Gene Steinberg

Gene Steinberg

Well-known member
I am very sympathetic to your cause, and I hope you'll prevail in the lawsuit from the publishers of vBulletin.

On the other hand, if the courts surprise you — and they can be unpredictable — how do you indemnify people who have invested in your product? Are they potentially liable in the event that the verdict goes against you, because they'd be using software that supposedly infringes on another product? Not to mention one that may never be updated.

Mind you, I'm not suggesting for a moment that you will lose. But I do want to start moving our forums to Xenforo starting with your 1.1 version, and I just need to feel better about the process.

Where's this stand (and forgive me if there's another tread on the subject that I've missed)?
 
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Yes, but with a small company, a lawsuit is a big deal. And being sued by a larger company with deeper pockets is a bigger deal. Sure, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and all the others are engaged in lawsuits all the time. It's the cost of doing business. But the little guy can't budget for such things meaningfully. You have to hope they're few and far between.
 
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Gene Steinberg said:
Yes, but with a small company, a lawsuit is a big deal. And being sued by a larger company with deeper pockets is a bigger deal. Sure, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and all the others are engaged in lawsuits all the time. It's the cost of doing business. But the little guy can't budget for such things meaningfully. You have to hope they're few and far between.
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so you just answered your own question from the OP.
Just do not buy XF if you are too afraid. It´s that simple.
 
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erich37 said:
well, if you read annual reports of companies, you will figure that each and every company is engaged in some kind of lawsuits. Either they are suing a competitor or being sued for various reasons.
Lawsuits nowadays are just a normal business-practice and business-strategy. Who cares?

Facebook for example has tons of lawsuits in their face and is suing other companies for using the word "book" in their domain name.
So are you stopping to use Facebook because Mark Zuckerberg is being sued ? Go ahead and quickly delete your Facebook-page because you are in danger!!!! :p
http://www.wacktrap.com/people/soci...w-lawsuit-ceglia-claims-84-facebook-ownership
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Larger companies aren't hit as hard as smaller start-up companies when it comes to lawsuits.
 
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Actually, since I'm waiting for 1.1 anyway, I would presume we'll know by then the situation with record to the next court hearing. That will determine the direction we go. If XenForo can get a dismissal, it augers well for the success of the defense.
 
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Gene Steinberg said:
Actually, since I'm waiting for 1.1 anyway, I would presume we'll know by then the situation with record to the next court hearing. That will determine the direction we go. If XenForo can get a dismissal, it augers well for the success of the defense.
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And if IB presses another frivolous lawsuit with little basis? I can see them doing this just from past actions by the company.
 
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if xenForo loses and the court forces xenForo to no longer conduct business, whomever makes the importer to their BBS will be king on sales for their BBS for sure.
 
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Forsaken said:
And if IB presses another frivolous lawsuit with little basis? I can see them doing this just from past actions by the company.
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Yes, but if the initial action is dumped, it's going to be harder and harder for them to keep it going. It's not going to look very good from a public relations standpoint either, if they can't win the first time. One hopes the judge will be inclined to reject frivolous lawsuits. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with the family members who went through over a decade of legal harassment, which is why I'm down on the whole thing.

But if XenForo gets through the next hurdle, I'll be far more confident of future success.
 
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Gene Steinberg said:
Yes, but if the initial action is dumped, it's going to be harder and harder for them to keep it going. It's not going to look very good from a public relations standpoint either, if they can't win the first time. One hopes the judge will be inclined to reject frivolous lawsuits. Unfortunately, that didn't happen with the family members who went through over a decade of legal harassment, which is why I'm down on the whole thing.

But if XenForo gets through the next hurdle, I'll be far more confident of future success.
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IB doesn't really seem to care what the public thinks of them.

They make the majority of their money off of content farm (Well thats what they become) forums, and it seems they only really rely on new licenses for vBulletin. They have clearly done very little to keep current license holders there.

If you do a little research on them, they have had many lawsuits that show how little they care about their PR.
 
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Well, I don't know about the other lawsuits, but here's the Wikipedia entry on IB:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Brands

Consider that as you will, but it's clear that, being bought by a private equity firm for $640 million last year, they surely have very, very deep pockets.

The only lawsuit I see is the one involving XenForo, at least in that article. I caught one or two others in a fast Google search, but I expect that a company of that size must have a barrel full of 'em.
 
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Gene Steinberg said:
Well, I don't know about the other lawsuits, but here's the Wikipedia entry on IB:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Brands

Consider that as you will, but it's clear that, being bought by a private equity firm for $640 million last year, they surely have very, very deep pockets.

The only lawsuit I see is the one involving XenForo, at least in that article. I caught one or two others in a fast Google search, but I expect that a company of that size must have a barrel full of 'em.
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https://encrypted.google.com/search...opera&num=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

Can't speak for the legitimacy of the results but you can see there have been many lawsuits filed against and by Internet Brands, most of which have been regarding forum acquisitions.
 
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Gene Steinberg said:
Well, I don't know about the other lawsuits, but here's the Wikipedia entry on IB:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Brands

Consider that as you will, but it's clear that, being bought by a private equity firm for $640 million last year, they clearly have very, very deep pockets.

The only lawsuit I see is the one involving XenForo, at least in that article. I caught one or two others in a fast Google search, but I expect that a company of that size must have a barrel full of 'em.
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Pending
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thegate/2010/07/13/lawsuit-pending-against-internet-brands/
Now Settled
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/26/idUS317342305720110226

http://blog.patyuen.com/2010/05/12/...mayhem-files-lawsuit-against-internet-brands/
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/2:2010cv03006/470758/

Search Word(s): Internet Brands Inc
http://www.justia.com/
 
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