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2011 Award for most dishonest form of business goes to

January 9th, 2011

Dishonest patent litigation awardIn light of hearing the recent news that the website, WikiLeaks, has gathered confidential communications between the State Department and its many liaisons and plans on publishing it worldwide I have thought of a new yearly award we can hand out.

Well, between WikiLeaks and the unholy business of “patent trolls” buying off patents in order to use them solely as grounds for suing prospering business for patent infringement, I have gotten an idea! Let’s create an award identifying this years “Most dishonest form of business”.

Now I am sure we can sit here and think about many other candidates, but let’s get focused on pitching these two. First is WikiLeaks. Here is a business in which it’s sole purpose is to steal, bribe, cheat, and perhaps threaten life, to gather confidential, top secret type of information from national governments with the dastardly motivation to publish the info on the internet for all to see.

Doing this, of course, with the possibility of endangering military lives, or creating astronomical damage between nations, just for a profit. Then there are these “patent trolls” who represent the exact opposite of productive American business.

They, first, seek out struggling businesses, firms, or individuals who have no other choice but to sell their patent for whatever invention or product idea they have. Then, without any intention of ever manufacturing the patent idea, these “trolls” seek out successful businesses who have utilized some concept of their patented idea in order to sue them for patent infringements.

They are quite literally making money out of nothing. Looks like we have a couple of quality candidates for the award, right? Well then, drum roll please! And the winner is…

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?

Apple Given a Patent Lawsuit Penalty of $625.5 million dollars by a Tyler Texas Federal Jury

October 6th, 2010
Apple Patent Infringement Case Tyler Texas

Apple

As we have been writing about over the last several months, Tyler and East Texas are considered dumb hillbilly areas that offer large advantages for patent trolls to file patent infringement lawsuits and win.

Just a few months ago VirnetX of Tyler won $106 million against Microsoft so this is not at all uncommon around here.

Click here to contact a patent law attorney

It was reported today that a federal jury in Tyler Texas awarded a company located in Tyler Texas by the name of Mirror Worlds LLC $625.5 million dollars as a judgement against Apple for infringing on their patents.

Of course if they really did do something wrong they should have to pay some type of penalty. What is often the case with patent outfits like this is to find that the company is simply a patent clearing house. The company buys up patents with the sole motive being to find large companies infringing on the patent and profit from lawsuits. Often a company like this hasn’t a single physical product they actually sell.

An example would be to where a patent company buys up some patents that they already know are being infringed upon with the express purpose of making income through litigation. These patent trolls do not wish to make something with the patent they bought but are looking to sue as many large corporations as they can.

You must also consider that it is not all bad what the patent troll is doing as some engineers and scientists that have made these patents contractually sell their patents to large patent companies like this to basically handle the litigation for them. So in a way these patent clearing houses offer a service to legitimate inventors of a product, software, or service that may or may not have ever been developed.

This patent trolling makes millions and millions of dollars for these companies as well as their lawyers. Not only does the patent troll need to open up a business in Tyler or East Texas to pursue litigation here but their lawyer must be local counsel.

Click here to contact a patent law attorney

Although there will likely be a larger law firm outside of Tyler and possibly in another state working on the case they will retain local counsel here to pursue the matter in court.

There were 3 patents involved in this court case that Mirror Worlds LLC claim Apple infringed on. This comes out to $208.5 million per violation. Apple calls this lawsuit “triple dipping” if they actually collect all the 3 penalties.

The case is being appealed by Apple and will likely have some of the infringements and penalty’s knocked down and reduced but will still leave the patent troll company with millions of dollars for both themselves and their lawyers.

Once again Tyler Texas jury’s have proven to be gullible hillbilly idiots. My best guess is that most of the jury simply do not understand the complexities of the technological patents being discussed in court and are lulled into believing the patent trolls sob story.

The patents in the dispute were created by Yale professor David Gerlenter. David spun off Mirror Worlds Technologies from the university in 1996 and files the patents in 1999.

I imagine that the current Mirror Worlds LLC entity is no longer owned by the original patent owner, David Gerlenter but was bought by a patent troll. The patent troll than opened up an office in Tyler Texas in order to be able to sue from Tyler Texas so the lawsuit would be decided by an East Texas jury.

Patent Trolling East Texas

Patent Troll

By having patent litigation decided by a Tyler or East Texas judge and jury it is almost a guaranteed win for the patent troll company which is why I suspect Mirror World LLC opened up an office in Tyler Texas.

U.S. District Judge Leonard Davis is considering Apple’s request at this time that Apple does not infringe at least 2 of these patents. He will likely grant this request and lower the penalty amounts on at least 2 of the 3 infringement penalties.

Click here to contact a patent law attorney

The judge will soon hear arguments now on the damages awarded in the case from both sides

Patent Trolling: Abusing The System?

Patent lawyers have taken over the patent trolling industry in a new way by going from an attorney who helps patent holders defend against other companies who are suing them in regards to an infringed patent to these same lawyers buying large swaths of patents themselves and suing companies. You see no one is in a better position to know just how lucrative it is to sue companies that are infringing on patents then the patent litigation attorneys who have both defended and fought and won many of these cases for other companies.

You would think an attorney that worked in the patent infringement industry and has seen all the abuse in this issue would work to reform the industry. This however is not the case and quite a few attorneys that have won and lost some very big patent infringement cases are trying to make revenue themselves by being patent owners. Kind of sounds like the old saying,  “if you can’t beat them join them”, to me.

If you think about it owning a patent is like owning a business and in this case an attorney fighting for these businesses is just an employee who makes a meager amount compared to the patent owning company or the large corporation fighting the lawsuit. The amount of money gets up into the hundreds of millions of dollars so for many this type of power and money is a legacy creating game changer.

Take Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards who was a mesothelioma cancer attorney. His law firm sued very large companies like Corning and others where workers were contaminated by asbestos created products. His law firm made hundreds of millions of dollars and he became wealthy in the process. He eventually became a senator for North Carolina. Coincidentally the Corning plant was an east Texas manufacturing company that was the main culprit in the asbestos poisoning of their workers.

Some of these patent attorneys that once defended companies against claims of infringements by the plaintiffs in a lawsuit are now also buying patents and going after several companies they may have once defended in the past. Considering this attorney will likely make several hundred million dollars in his lawsuits some would say that money has gotten the better of him. I don’t see how this type of thing should be allowed to continue as this would be an obvious and blatant abuse of the patent laws in the United States.

One of these attorneys that has gone from defending litigants to being a plaintiff has bought up over 4,500 patents from a company that makes computer-memory chips. He also has a new law firm that works along side his patent owning company in pursuing litigation against any and all companies that have infringed these patents.

It seems a bit hypocritical to go from defending many of these companies to suing them but hey what do I know I am not an attorney and I will probably never own a patent.