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An oil change may lead to needing a tire change

September 27th, 2012

Generally speaking, I’ve had no trouble with Fast Oil & Lube on Highway 31 in Tyler, just a mile from the loop. That is until a few months ago when I decided to never go back there again, and it’s a shame because my house is located just down the road.

Anyway, I had just gotten off work and I needed an oil change for a road trip I was taking the next morning.  I got out of my car and let the employees do their thing when one of them asked me if I had a spare tire. I answered, “Yes, but why would I need it?”

He then proceeded to show me my flat tire and the valve was completely torn out.

Not that there’s a good time for this to happen, but the timing couldn’t have gotten worse for me. I had to be leaving town no later than 7:30 the next morning and most places don’t open util 8 a.m. Yes, I made them pay and I made a decision as to where I will never go to get my oil change.

I never got an understandable explanation but I was obviously extremely upset with them. The most logical explanation I could come to was that when they did their courtesy tire check, they decide to add more air the were careless as they yanked the hose while it was attached to the valve. Not sure if that’s accurate, but that’s not important. What was important was they made a stupid careless mistake that cost them at least one customer. I’d advise you not to go there either unless you don’t care about keeping your vehicle in good shape.

Patent Troll Basics

November 2nd, 2010

If you’ve heard the term patent troll but are not sure what it means, then you’re in the right place. A patent troll, sometimes called a patent pirate, is a company or other entity, sometimes an individual that uses patent law to enforce patents against potential offenders in exchange for a payout. This practice is questionable, but current patent law allows it.

Click here to contact a patent law attorney

Patent trolls have no interest in using the patents they obtain for anything except as bartering power with large companies. Sometimes patent trolls purchase patents from companies that are willing to sell due to the fact that they never made what they had patented. In other cases, patents are bought in bulk quantities from companies going out of business or bankrupt.

The reason patent trolling is so lucrative, especially in hotspots like Tyler, Texas, is because it is very common for the patent troll that holds the patent to win in a lawsuit, which can sometimes mean payouts of millions of dollars with very little work being done by the patent troll.

Obviously, patent trolling is of questionable ethics but that only matters so much. The real problem is that current patent law allows patent holders to go after other entities even if they haven’t acted on their patent. Being the owner of the patent, even if you never used it, puts you in a position to barter with large companies with the threat of taking them to court for patent infringement. No company wants to deal with a patent infringement case and many cannot afford it period. Thus, patent trolls usually are able to “bully” the companies into paying an outside of court settlement.

Click here to contact a patent law attorney