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Rocket Docket Court for patent litigation in Marshall Texas

December 21st, 2010

marshall texas attorneysIt’s like they say, “one bad apple can ruin the whole barrel”. This past decade has seen an increasing rise in the number of patent litigation cases taken place, which in turn has produced such things as “rocket docket” court districts like in Marshall, Texas, a call for patent reform, and the unethical business of “patent trolls”.

Patent trolls are the bad apple of patent litigation and, you would think, the potential source of ruining the current patent system. It is kind of like what is taking place with air travel and airport security this holiday season. Recently we have heard or seen protests like, “don’t touch my junk” and of scantily clad individuals entering airport security.

This has been brought on to question TSA’s methods for identifying potential terrorist threats. And due to the undesired methods of full body scans and detailed “pat downs” many are questioning whether or not to travel by air for the holidays.

And all of this is because of what a few, bad men have done through their acts of terrorism. So, the questions is, has the actions of patent trolls hurt legitimate patent litigation cases? The main damage that could be done by the “patent troll” type of cases is the possibility of the jury being swayed by the motivation of the patent troll for the lawsuit.

But, considering that their responsibility is simply to gauge whether or not the patent has been infringed, this ultimately should not affect patent infringement cases. And if the number of cases is any indication, then we can say that it has not hindered. With only a few “slow” times the past 2-3 years, patent lawsuits have continuously been on the rise. So have patent trolls hurt legitimate cases? The answer: No. I guess these apples are so bad after all?

Flight Horror

November 19th, 2010

Terrorists Airplane FlightNovember and December are some of the most traveled months of the year. Flying is the most popular way of travel, it saves a ton of time and if you find the right deals, it could save you money. There are many horror stories of flights that have gone wrong. If you are flying out of Tyler Pound’s Airport you may want to know which airline have the safest history.

American Airline is one of the most popular airlines. But I have just recently discovered that not every horror story is reported. A flight coming out of Washington D.C. had to take an emergency landing after only being in the air for about fifteen minutes.

After they landed they asked all of the passengers to leave the plane. There were no other planes around them, which began to seem like that this situation was serious. The fire department showed up and they began to look for a fire within the plane. The fire department began to throw foam into the luggage compartment.

The passengers were not told where to go or what to do. There was no one to greet them or help them. They had to call information to hear a computerized message. They asked a couple employees of the airline where they were suppose to go and the employees had no idea what they were talking about. There was no costumer service. No news stations nor news papers were there reporting on the emergency landing.

If there is an emergency like that I would expect there to be great custumer service and someone there in person to help out and guide the passengers to where they were expected to go. So before you travel this holiday season you should check on the airline and their customer service during an emergency.

Santa Land, A Great Christmas Destination!

January 13th, 2010

santaSanta Land is located off Hwy 20 going towards Dallas. Santa Land opens up November 1 every year and stays open during the Holiday Season until January 4th. Cost $25 per car and $35 per 15 passenger van. I have been there several times so far and the waiting period has been around one hour or so depending on the time you arrive there. The sooner you get there, the less you have to wait. It is an excellent thing to do for your children and your family during Christmas.

You might think that going around and looking at the Christmas lights around Tyler might be cheaper and less of a waiting period. I guarantee you it won’t be as fun as going at least once through Santa Land. You can go run by a fast food place and eat it in the car while you wait in line. While you are waiting in line you can use that time to listen to music or talk to your children or you can just be silent. There are people that walk around your cars and try to sell you all kinds of stuff that lights up and it costs $5 dollars per item (These people are not with Santa Land or a part of the park. Santa Land only sells things within their gate).

Beyond just the light show display there is The 4000 sq ft gift shop filled with ornaments of all varieties.

There is a Snack shack where you can buy some really delicious hot chocolate, homemade treats, fudge, cookies, and much more.

They have tractor drawn trailer rides and a real live Santa Claus to meet and take pictures with that starts Thanksgiving and runs until Christmas.

I know you are probably thinking you can do without spending all this time on something that will only last for a little while. You are right, you can do without it but your children will love it. We even broke down and bought a sword that lights up and my 22 month old loved it. It was worth it just to see how excited she was to play with the toy and spending time with mommy and daddy while looking at the awesome lights. You only get to come here once a year so I think you can spare $25 dollars a year to go and have some fun with your friends and family and if you really don’t have $25 dollars to spend then borrow a 15 passenger van and get some of your friends together and split the cost. That will be even cheaper than $25 dollar.

Either way you do it I think it will be worth your time and money. I know you are waiting to hear what goes on around Santa Land for that much money? When you enter Santa Land they tell you the music radio station that you need to turn to while you are there. The whole place is filled with lights of all types and shapes and is synced with the radio channel that plays Christmas music. They have the Santa Wish shop and his little elves helping Santa. Also they have scenes depicting Jesus, all kinds of flowers and so many other lights. My words really don’t do justice to the place and no matter how hard I try to describe the place you will have to go see it for yourself as to what Santa Land has to offer.

After you are done watching all the lights they have, then you can stop and go look at all the things they have to sell. They have some really neat stuff actually and the price is probably around the same as other places. While I was there I saw an item that was $12 dollars and it was three crosses made out of metal. The item was real nice looking metal made to represent the crucifixion of Jesus. I thought that paying $12 for something like that was not too bad if you like or collect crosses. You will mainly find a galore of different Christmas related items for sale and most of the items are a splendid display of ornaments of all kinds.

The Santa Land Wish Shop has a little something for everyone’s liking but it’s mainly about the kids.  After all that shopping you will probably have worked up an appetite and be hungry. They have an area where you can order something to eat but I would drive up I20 to Bodacious barbecue for some real food. The owner, Cindy has done a wonderful job in making this a family experience sure to leave lasting memories for everyone. Well, I hope I convinced you to go visit Santa Land come this next holiday season.

Confused Rudeness

January 10th, 2010

I have written a before of my distaste of the rude Wal-Mart shoppers at the Wal-Mart stores in Tyler. Now I am talking from a whole different view.

The other day I went to Wal-Mart in Lindale by myself, which is very odd because I usually am balancing two screaming children and trying to get groceries at the same time. I decided to do the most annoying thing that Wal-Mart shoppers do, I stood in the middle of the aisle and looked on my phone. I tried out different places in the store to see if I got different reactions. Since this mission was during the extremely busy holiday season, I stood between the canned yams and the canned French-cut green beans. I pulled out my phone and leaned over the cart. Soon enough a little old lady stood staring at the canned goods. She tried not to look at me and just stood there waiting for almost a minute, not saying anything to me. She tried to act like she could not decide what sweet potatoes to use to put in her candy yams. I began to feel bad, so I moved on.

My next stop was the diaper aisle. My victims were the young moms. Being placed in this category, myself, I embraced for the worse. As I stood there blocking the infant diapers, half looking at the products and half looking at my phone. As I expected it wasn’t long before a young mom walked up to me with a small child sitting in the back of the cart surrounded by groceries. She had no patience a quickly snapped at me with “um, excuse me”. This was about the reaction I would give, and have given.

Wanting to get each variety of each Wal-Mart shopper, I headed to the electronic section. I stood in front of the new release DVDs and Blu-ray discs. I had to wait a while before someone actually came and looked at the movies. My cart was blocking most of the movies on the self. As a middle aged man walked up her just asked if this was my cart, I nodded “yes” and he slowly moved it out of his way to reach for what he wanted. I felt like this reaction was appropriate, I wasn’t moving and I wasn’t moving or touching my cart.

My last stop of this experiment was the toy section. This was the section I looked the most forward, because of the crowded and insane holiday shopping. I stood in the middle of the “pink aisle” in front of the beloved holiday Barbie, and the Disney princesses. This time I did the most famous of shopping moves, I talked way too loud on the phone that everyone could hear my conversation. No one said anything to me, even though I am obviously in their way. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was on the phone and people didn’t want to interrupt my obnoxious conversation, or if it was that they were in to much of a hurry. People reached around me, I was getting hit in the back with a purse, and my car was being pushed around, and people were reaching over my cart or reaching under it. So it was as if people were being rude, pushing my cart out of the way, while trying not to be rude and interrupt my phone call.

My last act of rudeness to blend into the mold of the typical shopper, was talking on my phone and walk extremely slow down the middle of the store. People sighed in frustration loud enough for me to hear and people quickly speed-walked right past me, shooting me a bad look over their shoulder. The world of the rude shopper is very intense. The Wal-Mart shopper must be fearless, and heartless, and most importantly, oblivious to the people around you.

Through my experience of rude shopping, I realize how hard the art of rudeness is. I also realize how often rudeness is repaid with rudeness.