Quote:
Originally posted by Mortimer
One thing I do wonder though about this patent is: are you going to go after affiliate programs that offer commissions on upselling in their members' area? If the afifiliate program is using its own servers and methods for tracking upsell sales in his system, and is giving commission on those to the webmasters, do you consider that infrigement of your trademark? Because this could cause a conflict with existing affiliate programs...
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xpays isn't going to tell you their plans... if you think you might be a target, there are a couple of ways to deal with it:
1) do nothing.. wait for them to contact you, and then you decide what you want to do, then:
a) do nothing again
b) hire a patent attorney and get an opinion paper
c) close up shop
2) hire a patent attorney and get an opinion paper. This will cost you anywhere from $10k - $25K. By having this, it helps to avoid the "wilfull infringement" charge.. Given the outcome of the attorney's report, you may have a chance to argue in court to defend yourself, or the attorney's analyst confirms the patent claims and that you do infringe.
3) read the patents yourself, look at your business, if it looks pretty close, and you don't have the money to get an opinion paper, then negotiate for a license based on volume, sweetheart deal, etc.
4) move everything offshore where they don't have a patent office.
Fight the Options!