Patent Trolls Target Small East Texas Companies

An anonymous reader writes "In a sign that patent trolls are getting desperate to keep their cases in East Texas — long known as the friendliest venue for their claims — some have taken to suing tiny, no-name companies that are run by East Texas residents. The hope is that, if at least one defendant is located in East Texas, the judge will keep the entire case there. Nate Neel, a Longview, Texas resident with a small open source software company called CitiWare, was sued by Bedrock Computer Technologies in June despite (he claims) having no customers or other meaningful operations of any kind. In response, Mr. Neel has posted a strongly worded letter to Bedrock's attorneys on his Web site. It will be interesting to see how East Texas judges respond to this abuse of process perpetrated against their own residents."

Comments

Interesting defense

[BadAnalogyGuy]

I didn't realize that "I dun have no cuzmers" was a valid defense against patent violations.

Re:Interesting defense

[eldavojohn]

I didn't realize that "I dun have no cuzmers" was a valid defense against patent violations.

That's not all of his argument. Although his letter is unprofessional and poorly organized, he says:

To Sam Baxter - if you wish to acknowledge my email and realize your mistake on claiming CitiWare in your suit on Bedrocks behalf, then remove any claims against CitiWare / CityWare and I can remove this page and any publicity about filling an invalid lawsuit against a company that never used your patent or for that matter even developed any product sold or used (CityWare only used Open Source code under GPL for personal projects or other employers)!

He's probably flabbergasted that they didn't do any development, they just repackaged/administered GPL licensed open source products and now find themselves the target of a lawsuit. And like the article says, they don't care about him or what he says or the validity of targeting him, they care about keeping the case in East Texas District Court.

This guy doesn't need a defense, he just needs to reside in East Texas and he's part of this case no matter how ill placed the blame is.

Re:Interesting defense

[jtev]

Well, if he didn't sell anything, or otherwise distribute anything to anyone then there can be no harm to the patent holder. That means that it is not worth their wile for them to sue him.

Re:Interesting defense

[BadAnalogyGuy]

What is worth someone's wile or not is really up to them, isn't it?

Re:Interesting defense

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not that he has no customers, it's the fact he closed his branch of the company completely in 2005. FTA :

"According to the complaint, defendants ...CitiWare Technology Solutions... use the method and apparatus falling within the scope of the '120 Patent in the course of their business operations."

Suing CitiWare in Colorado where they are based makes sense, suing them in Texas where that branch of the company hasn't existed for four years is a bit nonsensical except to try and keep it in a region known to be sympathetic to their claims. Which seems more than a bit dirty to me, but then again, they are patent trolls...

Re:Interesting defense

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a wiley thing to say

Re:Interesting defense

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

Maybe he's a coyote.

Re:Interesting defense

[HangingChad]

This guy doesn't need a defense, he just needs to reside in East Texas and he's part of this case no matter how ill placed the blame is.

You stay classy, Texas.

Re:Interesting defense

[navygeek]

How is it that assholes like this aren't IP Banned?

Re:Interesting defense

[houstonbofh]

They are suing him and others. But he is the only one it the courts venue... What they get from suing him is securing a friendly venue. But in Texas, judges are positions voted on. Piss off the residents, and look for a new job.

Re:Interesting defense

[Em Emalb]

The Most Litigating Man in the World:

"I don't always sue people for patent violations, but when I do, I sue in East Texas. Stay classy my friends."

Re:Interesting defense

[Evanisincontrol]

That's a wiley thing to say

Maybe he's a coyote.

+1 so unfunny it's funny

Re:Interesting defense

[ari_j]

I'm just glad someone made that joke before I did. I sat there for five minutes, just staring at the comments and wondering whether to make a coyote joke or not. Now, my worries are over.

Re:Interesting defense

[budgenator]

They are suing him and others. But he is the only one it the courts venue... What they get from suing him is securing a friendly venue. But in Texas, judges are positions voted on. Piss off the residents, and look for a new job.

Federal Judges are appointed for life, and can acquire Secret Service protection without too much difficulty.

Re:Interesting defense

[budgenator]

DHCP, new IP address anytime you want.

Re:Interesting defense

[Shakrai]

Federal Judges are appointed for life, and can acquire Secret Service protection without too much difficulty.

Umm, I thought it was the US Marshals Service that protected Federal Judges?

Re:Interesting defense

[Shakrai]

How is it that assholes like this aren't IP Banned?

Because /. has a moderation system and doesn't banish people or delete posts over content? If it bothers you why not browse at +1 or +2? I haven't seen too many racist trolls that aren't quickly modded -1.

Re:Interesting defense

[The Ultimate Fartkno]

Fortunately, I have no shame.

Re:Interesting defense

[michaelhood]

Don't let reality get in the way of cool sounding stories or posts.

Re:Interesting defense

[Just Some Guy]

This guy doesn't need a defense, he just needs to reside in East Texas and he's part of this case no matter how ill placed the blame is.

Isn't Texas the place where "he needed killed" is a valid murder defense? I'm not sure that's an appropriate place to mount an offensive against the locals.

Re:Interesting defense

[Clover_Kicker]

Proxies. Botnets. If you're motivated you can have as many IP addresses as you want.

What provide the motivation? Getting a reaction from people like you. Somewhere, in his mom's basement, there's a guy with his cock out fwapping away to your post.

I hope you're proud of yourself.

Re:Interesting defense

[hairyfeet]

If you are gonna quote one of our great unwritten southern laws sir, please be so kind as to quote it correctly. It is "He needed killin" not "he needed killed" and I think we can all agree that sometimes they just need a good killin.

You Yankees can think of it as a like a mercy killin, only for society against the one being killed. And I'm sure we can all agree the courts in East texas are full of bottom feeders that could use some tender lovin mercy.

Re:Interesting defense

[Anonymous Coward]

"I was just using GPL code" is not a patent defense if that GPL code violated patents. In fact, it would be an admission of guilt.

Re:Interesting defense

[Just Some Guy]

Sorry about the misquote. I phrased it the way it would've been said where I grew up.

You Yankees

Take it back, Tex. I'm not from the Lone Star State, but there's no need to get nasty about it. Besides, you're acting like I don't think it's a good idea.

Re:Interesting defense

[Nathrael]

The Secret Service protects other government officials (mainly the President, the VP, embassy personnel etc); the federal courts have their own executive, which, yes, is the US Marshals Service.

Re:Interesting defense

[budgenator]

I thought I remembered the Secret Service protecting a Judge in Chicago because of specific death threats; I assumed that it was because the judge received a specific and credible threat personally rather than routine court security, I easily could be wrong.

Re:Interesting defense

[daem0n1x]

They could remove this post. It's illegal in my country and would grant the poster some months in jail. Isn't it illegal in the USA?

Re:Interesting defense

[timothyf]

No.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech#United_States

Re:Interesting defense

[Anonymous Coward]

-1: Troll? We must have a lot of patent litigation attorneys on Slashdot.

Re:Interesting defense

[Shakrai]

They could remove this post. It's illegal in my country and would grant the poster some months in jail. Isn't it illegal in the USA?

I feel sad for you that you don't live in a country that respects free speech.

Re:Interesting defense

[wastedlife]

No that would not be a good defense on its own, but they are not selling or even distributing the code as far as I can tell. The summary seems to be incorrect in calling them a "software company", as from what I gather they were more of a webhosting company. If patent lawsuits can include what amounts to end-users that could in no way have known they were using something that was patented, then the patent system has moved from merely totally fucked to being an outright travesty. Say, for example, that Microsoft Windows violates a patent, should the patent holders be able to sue every user of Microsoft Windows?

Re:Interesting defense

[wastedlife]

Copy-pasta trolling is guaranteed right in the U.S.

Seriously though, while I find that post atrocious, outlawing free speech would be far worse. Your right to not be offended does not outweigh my right to speak my mind.

Re:Interesting defense

[sjames]

While the first part is true, it's not a legal reason to sue someone.

Re:Interesting defense

[Gizzmonic]

What provide the motivation? Getting a reaction from people like you. Somewhere, in his mom's basement, there's a guy with his cock out fwapping away to your post.

I hope you're proud of yourself.

You know, that would be an awesome .sig.

Re:Interesting defense

[twiddlingbits]

No shame but a good karma boost. Nice move! Wiley indeed!

Re:Interesting defense

[Froboz23]

It may be difficult to defend against a patent lawsuit in East Texas, but consider this: If you defeat a Patent Troll in its lair, you get treasure types O,P,Q,X and 1d4+1 emeralds.

Re:Interesting defense

[hairyfeet]

Hey now, no need to insult me by callin me a Texan. That is just...wrong. I'm an Arkie, thank you very much. Complete with the small town that looks like something from the 19th century, with a roaring 20s movie theater and average age of buildings is over a century.

So I'm sorry if I mistook you for a Yankee, but there is no need to insult a man by callin him a Texan. Using the word killed instead of killing sounded more like Boston than Baton Rouge, thats all. And I think we can all agree that East Texas is just full of lawyers that could use a an application of that particular statute. Hell just think about how many tax dollars would be saved each year if East Texas wasn't full of patent trolls!

Re:Interesting defense

[Just Some Guy]

(I grew up in Springfield, MO, about 35 miles north of your northern border.)

Re:Interesting defense

[cts5678]

"Say, for example, that Microsoft Windows violates a patent, should the patent holders be able to sue every user of Microsoft Windows?" Apparently, now the answer is yes. Didn't used to be but now it is, in east TX anyway.

Re:Interesting defense

[daem0n1x]

I feel sad for you that you don't live in a country that respects free speech.

You will find that, with the exception of the USA, all developed countries forbid hate speech and incitement to violent crime. In my country that law has only ever been enforced once, though, as far as I can remember. Apart from that, I can say pretty much anything I want.

Re:Interesting defense

[Shakrai]

You will find that, with the exception of the USA, all developed countries forbid hate speech and incitement to violent crime

Right, so they don't have free speech. Thank you for agreeing with me.

Re:Interesting defense

[daem0n1x]

No, I don't agree with you.

Re:Interesting defense

[Shakrai]

You either have free speech or you don't. If some Government agent is telling you that you can't say something because it's offensive towards some group of people then that's not free speech.

One of the things I value about my country is that we'll let anybody speak their mind. Europeans evidently regard that as too much freedom. That's their loss, I think.

Re:Interesting defense

[daem0n1x]

you can't say something because it's offensive towards some group of people

We can say offensive stuff at will. What's illegal is incitement to hatred and violence against a group and also incitement to commit crimes. It's not a lot different from the US, and it's very seldom enforced, because it opens a few cans of worms.
You have to understand that we had Fascism and Nazism destroying our whole continent. These are infections that must be closely contained or can become septicemia. You never had such problems over there.

Europeans evidently regard that as too much freedom.

And Australians, Canadians, etc. etc. Don't blame it on Europe. You are the exception, not us.

Anyway, this is a pissing contest. I like our way and also your way. I don't like the way of China or Iran. Freedom is a great thing.

Re:Interesting defense

[Shakrai]

Freedom is a great thing.

Too bad you don't have it.

Re:Interesting defense

[harlows_monkeys]

This guy doesn't need a defense, he just needs to reside in East Texas and he's part of this case no matter how ill placed the blame is

Nice fantasy. In reality, the threat of rule 11b sanctions would prevent that behavior.

Strongly worded letter?

[TubeSteak]

I'm going to go ahead and point out that repeatedly dropping the F-bomb is not "strongly worded" it is "unprofessional".
Not to mention the lack of spell check.

It sucks what's being done to the guy, but a little professionalism goes a long way.
And like anything else on the internet, his poorly spelled "FUCK YOU" is always going to be associated with his name.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[amiga3D]

Heh...well maybe that's why he's not in business anymore. I think maybe they pissed him off. Sooner or later if these trolls keep suing everyday people they're going to run across one that's not wrapped too tight. It's only a matter of time before someone shows up at one of these lawyer's offices with a pump shotgun and sprays the place down. Keep fucking with everybody and the odds go up.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[fuscata]

Agreed, and I'd say he's setting himself up for a not-so-frivolous defamation suit.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[lordofthechia]

Ah yes, the law of averages:

http://plif.courageunfettered.com/archive/wc210.gif

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[hackus]

Well I disagree here.

Professionalism means conduct in exchange for service or work completed.

All he got in the mail was a lawsuit notice.

Professionalism has nothing to do about this whole matter.

Might I point out that the other party of this dispute TRULY DOES lack professionalism as well as ethics.

Simply because you wrap it all up in nice grammar, letterhead and mail it to someone does not make it professional or ethical.

-Hack

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time I checked, dead threat was a crime.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

there comes a point where you just have to tell someone to go fuck themselves. no amount of chivalry would change anything in a case such as this.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

fuk you

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[drinkypoo]

A 20x20 pixel white or perhaps transparent shim. Yes, that certainly was illustrative. Sooner or later, someone will post a link to an image that is totally useless. Or are you just collecting IPs?

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

The other part of the story is that his letter is going to end up in front of the federal judge. He might be entitled to sanctions to compensate him for the wasted time and expense in responding to a lawsuit that was brought against him with no basis in reality, but federal judges tend to disdain juvenile responses to serious matters. Like many things in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to respond to a ridiculous lawsuit - this guy chose the wrong way and it will most likely end up costing him.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[TerranFury]

Indeed. I'd be pissed off too, but all this guy has achieved is to make a fool of himself. There is a classy way to put someone in his place which will earn you respect from others, and this isn't it.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut the fuck up and quit being such a little bitch

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[orsty3001]

I miss spelled fuck you onetime and never to this day have been able to live it down. You'd never guess there would be so many grammar Nazis in Sunday School.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Random Destruction]

The webcomic didn't like the source URL. A refresh brings it right up.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Oswald]

Seriously. I was on the verge of googling his (repeated) use of the word slim to see what hip, young lingo I needed to add to my repertoire. Then I realized he just can't spell "slime".

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[mcgrew]

Not to mention the lack of spell check.

Sew true, eye all ways ewes a spill chucker!

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[jedidiah]

Even in Texas, a judge is probably going to be bright enough to know that
he should treat responses written by lawyers differently than those written
by some working stiff.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

Precisely. I am a connoisseur of strongly-worded letters, and his is not one. A strongly-worded letter strikes fear into the heart of the recipient using only on-topic attacks of the recipient's argument itself. Ad hominem attacks always have the effect of derogating your own position by the implied concession that your opponent's argument is too iron-clad for you to respond to it directly. There is a time and place for ad hominem attacks, but at least spell them right.

Picture yourself as the judge. There are two people in front of you, neither of whom you have met. One of them says, "He infringed my patent by operating a business that manufactured millions of units of products utilizing the claimed technique." The other one only says, "Fuck you, slim[e]!" Right off the bat, you are going to be biased against the guy who can't be bothered to explain why he didn't infringe the patent. He just looks like a puerile, sophomoric idiot.

Now, try it again. This time, however, the second guy says, "The suggestion that I infringed his patent is almost too absurd to form a response. Not only was I never in a manufacturing business, but no activity I have ever undertaken has utilized the technique claimed in the patent. Even the slightest bit of factual research could have reached that conclusion prior to bringing this lawsuit against me." Now, the first guy is the one who looks like a lazy buffoon.

And that's how you word things strongly. And, if you really want to have some fun, use the puntacular phrase "patently ridiculous." Judges love puns!*

* - Well, not really. Some do, but only if you use them judiciously.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[mcvos]

The webcomic didn't like the source URL. A refresh brings it right up.

Not for me.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[couchslug]

"It's only a matter of time before someone shows up at one of these lawyer's offices with a pump shotgun and sprays the place down. Keep fucking with everybody and the odds go up."

Shotguns don't "spray" very well. Center of mass, people, center of mass.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[sosume]

He's not in business anymore. Therefore he is replying as a person and not as a business. No need for professionalism, unless there is some rule that persons have to communicate like lawyers and businesses.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[mcvos]

The other part of the story is that his letter is going to end up in front of the federal judge. He might be entitled to sanctions to compensate him for the wasted time and expense in responding to a lawsuit that was brought against him with no basis in reality, but federal judges tend to disdain juvenile responses to serious matters.

What's serious about this lawsuit? It's completely ridiculous. That's not serious, that's laughable.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[schon]

I was on the verge of googling his (repeated) use of the word slim to see what hip, young lingo I needed to add to my repertoire.

Dude, that is *so* slim!

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

>> * - Well, not really. Some do, but only if you use them judiciously.

Well played sir, well played :)

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

If you are sued and you believe the lawsuit is ridiculous, you still have to handle it seriously. Failure to do so most often results in it becoming a more serious matter than it needs to be, with you fined or jailed for contempt as a bad outcome or having a default judgment entered against you as a "good" outcome.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[lorenlal]

If you really want to do some damage to a few targets, you're better off with a slug anyway. There might be innocents nearby, and buckshot isn't as useful from across the office.

If you're looking for a good spray, a fully automatic (slightly modded AK) would be much better.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Tablizer]

I am a connoisseur of strongly-worded letters

In other words, a frequent usenet user.
     

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[TubeSteak]

He's not in business anymore. Therefore he is replying as a person and not as a business. No need for professionalism, unless there is some rule that persons have to communicate like lawyers and businesses.

Anyone with a job is "in business".
Some legal letterhead and a motion to dismiss is all it takes to make the case go away.
In the meantime, this guy could have worked his victimhood positively.
Instead, anyone googling the case will inevitably end up reading his poorly spelt and argued rant.

Off the top of my head, two high profile examples of "Victimhood 101: Doing it right" are nissan.com and Ernie Ball

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Like many things in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to respond to a ridiculous lawsuit

The "right way" being to craft a stately letter filled with "professional" prose, and thus confering not a small amount of legitimacy to the actions of these blackmailers. By doing so, the responder tacitly recognises the worthiness of the claims to be heard in court and dives headfirst into the molasses of rules, traditions and procedures of the legal system, where cunning lawyers have the upper hand.

Better to reject their claims as contemptible nonsense, and say as much to the court when (if) the matter is finally heard. Remember, they're the ones who have to prove that you've done something wrong. It's not your job to prove you haven't.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[tlhIngan]

Even in Texas, a judge is probably going to be bright enough to know that
he should treat responses written by lawyers differently than those written
by some working stiff.

True, but a judge is also smart to realize that the respondent isn't a child, and should have the appropriate literacy skills to write a formal letter using formal language conventions. It won't be as lawyerly as a response written by a lawyer, so it may diverge from "proper" legal language (e.g., emotional appeals may creep in) as well as inappropriate requests.

Even if the case is frivolous, it's always a good thing to not get on the judge's bad side right at the beginning.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno how you spell fuck or you, but I spell it the same way as the guy you are attempting to ridicule for having bad grammar and not caring about a spellchecker.

So, FUCK YOU TubeSteak.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

I am a connoisseur of strongly-worded letters

In other words, a frequent usenet user.

No, nothing nearly so respectable. I'm an attorney.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

Like many things in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to respond to a ridiculous lawsuit

The "right way" being to craft a stately letter filled with "professional" prose, and thus confering not a small amount of legitimacy to the actions of these blackmailers. By doing so, the responder tacitly recognises the worthiness of the claims to be heard in court and dives headfirst into the molasses of rules, traditions and procedures of the legal system, where cunning lawyers have the upper hand.

Better to reject their claims as contemptible nonsense, and say as much to the court when (if) the matter is finally heard. Remember, they're the ones who have to prove that you've done something wrong. It's not your job to prove you haven't.

Please do not follow this advice. Being a melodramatic child is never a good idea. There is a proper way to tell the court that the allegations against you are ridiculous and don't deserve to waste the court's time. This guy's approach is pretty much the opposite of that. It gets him on the bad side of the court without accomplishing anything.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

Exactly. Use words like "frivolous," not words like "fuck" and "slim[e]." If you are able to tell the judge that the case against you is frivolous in a cogent, adult manner, he might actually listen. If your response is littered with profanity and personal attacks on others, he likely won't. Having the judge listen to you is usually a good thing.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[nomadic]

Some legal letterhead and a motion to dismiss is all it takes to make the case go away.

I don't think this could be dismissed; if I represented this guy, I'd answer the complaint, denying everything. Any response on their part other than a voluntary dismissal, I'd file for Rule 11 sanctions and file a complaint with their state bar.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Bigjeff5]

It appears to have been crushed under the weight of slashdot. It's a Parking Lot Is Full comic from Dec 4, 2000.

No idea what it says.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[bertoelcon]

Sew true, eye all ways ewes a spill chucker!

That passes, maybe he did use one.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ground.zero.612]

The other part of the story is that his letter is going to end up in front of the federal judge. He might be entitled to sanctions to compensate him for the wasted time and expense in responding to a lawsuit that was brought against him with no basis in reality, but federal judges tend to disdain juvenile responses to serious matters. Like many things in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to respond to a ridiculous lawsuit - this guy chose the wrong way and it will most likely end up costing him.

So the moral of your story: "Kiss all legal representatives asses because they have the legal right (and authority) to destroy you emotionally and financially."

I think I'd like to agree with the CityWare guy and say FUCK YOU. I would also say that cowering to them when they take an attack posture like this emboldens them, and promotes a undue fear of being litigated against amongst the general populous.

The only idea I have for straightening out the legal mess that lawyers and judges have entangled the people of the US in is this: Kill all the lawyers and judges, re-write all laws that the average citizen can't easily understand, appoint new judges, and ban lawyers and "legalese" from our judicial system.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to go ahead and point out that repeatedly dropping the F-bomb is not "strongly worded" it is "unprofessional".

What difference does it make? They're gonna get him anyway. Might as well go down shouting.

Ya know, when the legal system allows this kind of BULLSHIT , that's when civilization breaks down. Sorry, was that unprofessional? - as opposed to the tactics Bedrock is using to get the results they want; that's thoroughly professional. Those who have money and influence can shop around and purchase any court decision they want. People start to take the law into their own hands because that's the only justice they can get.

Grab your guns, kids, its time for an overhaul!

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[bluefoxlucid]

There is a proper way to tell the court that the allegations against you are ridiculous

The word you're looking for is "bullshit."

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Bigjeff5]

Real shotguns don't work the same way video game shotguns do.

Short barrel shotguns behave similarly, the short barrel allows the shot to spread sooner, but a long barrel, particularly one with a choke, could keep the spray relatively tight for 50 yards or so. More than enough range to devastate an office.

Sure a slug will put a hole in you that you probably won't recover from, but buckshot will rip you up, AND has the added bonus of potential collateral damage if you're nervous and your aim is off.

Bird shot is what you don't want to use in this environment, all that is really going to do is hurt like hell. Maybe give some people lead poisoning, but that's about it. Ol' Dick just got lucky when he nearly killed his hunting buddy with bird shot.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[JPLemme]

You misspelled "miss spelled", too. You'd think you'd have learned your lesson by now....



You know, I just re-read your post and got the actual joke. It was very subtle.

(I was 14 when I learned that the "b" in "subtle" is silent. I thought "SUB-till" and "suttle" were synonyms. I've never lived that down, either.)

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

I never said you had to kiss any asses. If you really think that this guy's panicky, emotional, ad hominem response does anything but embolden his opponents, I'd like to hear your explanation. As someone who does eat weak people for breakfast for a living, I speak from personal experience when I say that this guy could have told them all to go fuck themselves a lot more effectively than he did. No ass-kissing necessary.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[lordofthechia]

Crap, the link didn't work... Time to eat the stick!

(January 15 comic, top in gallery, 2nd image)

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[haifastudent]

Who modded this Troll? Mods! Fix it!

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the few people who gets to have the pleasure to utter the acronym IAAL :P

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Bigjeff5]

Yeah, but you can also use a grammar checker, and the sentance fails miserably there.

Ewes is a plural noun, not a verb.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

There is a proper way to tell the court that the allegations against you are ridiculous

The word you're looking for is "bullshit."

Of "everything that guy just said is bullshit" fame.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[socz]

It's called virtue; you can send a nice looking and sounding letter, but if the intent or origins are shady then of course it doesn't matter how sweet you make it sound.

But people like to be fooled to think that as long as you don't "swear" you can be told anything anyway. I remember I had a friend who once told me via IRC "I always have to think about the things you tell me. I never know if you're being serious or making fun of me." That is an excellent example of how you can tell things to people that are offensive without "offensive words."

But in that case my friend was a dumbass so we'd call him on it sometimes LoL So I'm not a jerk to everyone or anything like that! But then again, I am a biker and bikers can do whatever they want! hahaha

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Blakey Rat]

Yes, but he had the chance to be the better man-- to reply to the unprofessional notice with a professional response-- and instead he swears like a college freshman.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

I actually went to law school because I was sick of people taking 'IANAL' the wrong way.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Khyber]

"Shotguns don't "spray" very well."

I guess you haven't seen the new recoilless full-auto AA-12 shotgun, have you? Spray is a very accurate term considering the shotgun shells are loaded with 00 buckshot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ebtj1jR7c

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with much of what has been said, with regard to the particulars and to specifics, but think about this very narrowly: The judge is going to decide whether this case legitimately belongs in East Texas. This guy acting like a jackass might just tip the scales in favor of moving the case elsewhere. He does not seem like the manager of a legitimate business.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

In Danish, the "b" is not silent: subtle => "subtil". So there ;)

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[AnAdventurer]

When I deal with lawyers (and other professionals who might think to take advantage) I make sure they know who I am personally (if they choose to look, that's different), but I always provide some personal bit of information about them (so they know, I know who I am dealing with) like the year they passed the bar and the first law firm they worked at and via email I make available a link to my web site. If conversational I make sure to drop something to they know my experience is broader then they scope of the current dealings. Nothing obvious or uncalled for, just enough to eat at their subconscious.

Take this comment, you might go "yeah whatever", you can read it or not (you may have stopped before getting to this part). Maybe I am sitting in my parents basement and I am a gaming fanboy still in high school or maybe I am ex-special forces? See, you went "yeah whatever", that's fine you have nothing invested, we don't know each other. Now, if you were to follow the link to my website thinking you might want to take legal action against me, do I come across as someone that handles things though legal channels?

I feel for the guy in the parent story (having been targeted in much the same way). We all handle it as best we can.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ground.zero.612]

I never said you had to kiss any asses. If you really think that this guy's panicky, emotional, ad hominem response does anything but embolden his opponents, I'd like to hear your explanation. As someone who does eat weak people for breakfast for a living, I speak from personal experience when I say that this guy could have told them all to go fuck themselves a lot more effectively than he did. No ass-kissing necessary.

Let me get this straight, your real point is that no matter what we regular citizens do/say, you legalese speaking assholes are going to eat us for breakfast for a living? There is nothing in any law that I've ever read that says I must be polite to anyone, nor for that matter any law that says lawyers and judges are allowed to fuck us over for doing so...

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[sabt-pestnu]

I agree with your sentiments completely.

IANAL. However, I'd like to point out that the web page letter is not yet a court document. And in its current form, it is unlikely to ever be presented as a motion, reply, memorandum, or anything but an exhibit.

More, it does not constitute notice to the plaintiff in any fashion, as delivery cannot be assured.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

That's not what I said. Try again. You don't have to kiss asses and you can tell the judge that the case against you is totally ludicrous. You are just a lot better served by doing so in a way that doesn't make you look like an adolescent with an anger management problem. When I say I eat weak people for breakfast, what I am referring to as weak people are the types who respond to rational arguments with emotional melodrama as this guy is doing. It has nothing to do with speaking legalese and everything to do with engaging in rational discourse rather than untoward ad hominem attacks.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

FU

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[sjames]

He is simply applying an old principle. Politeness is reserved for the deserving. Impolite words are/were considered offensive because their use implied that you didn't believe the recipient to be worthy of better words. I'd say that perfectly sums up his feelings here and that he is probably right.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[interkin3tic]

Picture yourself as the judge. There are two people in front of you, neither of whom you have met. One of them says, "He infringed my patent by operating a business that manufactured millions of units of products utilizing the claimed technique." The other one only says, "Fuck you, slim[e]!" Right off the bat, you are going to be biased against the guy who can't be bothered to explain why he didn't infringe the patent. He just looks like a puerile, sophomoric idiot.

I think everyone can agree that his defense should consist of more than profanity. Responding to this abuse of patent law with a less than professional letter doesn't limit his legal defense to just that though. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[HiThere]

I understand what you're saying, but I'm not certain you do.

You're saying that the legal system is essentially unfair to a large group of the citizenry, and it's their fault that they don't accept it's rules. That they must learn to accept it's rules and customs, or suffer grave injury.

I don't think it was your intent to say that, but that's what you said.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck that, these scumbag trolls at Bedrock Computer Technologies deserve every bit of profanity they get. An eye for an eye as they say, and what BCT is doing is about as unprofessional as it goes.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

This letter is only a part of what he wrote to the layers since he says they have been "ignoring my nice emails to the lawyers". Emails where he informed them his business didnt exist any more and he wasnt even doing any software then so couldnt infringe any patent.
I find this page the consequence of the said layers behavior as much as his. Frivolous trial indeed.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh... We're talking East Texas here. While there's lots of bright people in that part of the state, there IS a preponderance of people Jeff Foxworthy'd have a field day with out there.

Given that as being the case, I strongly suspect that the Judge might take pity on the poor redneck on this one.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[HolyCrapSCOsux]

Unless... He's trying to make the case that he is borderline illiterate, and therefore couldn't have possibly violated a software patent.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[agrounds]

This also is the way I read it.

To paraphrase what ari_j said: The burden of professional response lies on the shoulders of those least qualified to respond professionally, because that is how the system is rigged and we should all go along with this or lose everything we have worked for to immoral lawyers.

Sorry, ari_j, I don't accept that, and it is just not right. Our legal system has gotten out of control and unfortunately, since it is controlled by the lawyers and judges who are part of the problem, this is not likely to ever change. We have a system that allows for the indiscriminate fleecing of regular citizens to the tune of millions for patent shell companies and industry representatives. You or I have little chance of fending off one of these attacks, and even if we succeed in court, we still fail when the bills have to be paid for the defense. It is beyond the scope of the average person to afford to fight.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[demonlapin]

They're pretty piss-poor lawyers if you can startle them with matters that are essentially public records. Does it work?

Oh, and just read your sig. Nice. Been a long time, but wouldn't the subjunctive be called for here? And wouldn't that be agnoscat?

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh...well maybe that's why he's not in business anymore. I think maybe they pissed him off. Sooner or later if these trolls keep suing everyday people they're going to run across one that's not wrapped too tight. It's only a matter of time before someone shows up at one of these lawyer's offices with a pump shotgun and sprays the place down. Keep fucking with everybody and the odds go up.

I have been expecting the same at the RIAA offices. Would be interesting to know if the security at their offices are worse than a TSA checkpoint.

(Just out of curiosity not planning! :P)

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[dr2chase]

He's still a better man. The guys who sent him the letter have shit for evidence, they're just trolling for a juridisction. Of course, if he wanted to properly screw them over, he wouldn't tell them squat, but would tip off the opposing lawyers on this matter. They'd be HAPPY to point this out, in a professional manner, when it would do the maximum actual damage to the other jerk lawyers' case. Fraudulent jurisdiction shopping, there's bound to be some penalty for that.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Ant P.]

So you're implying that a patent troll suing a college freshman to extort money would be acceptable?

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[Tubal-Cain]

It's working now.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

I never once called for a professional response. I simply said that an inappropriate, juvenile, profanity-filled response is not a good idea. It does not take an attorney to be able to respond to something without becoming a melodramatic child about it as this guy did. If the "average person" is incapable of rational thought, then there are bigger problems than the legal system at work.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[agnosticnixie]

You know, diplomacy is all about giving people the impression that you're kissing their ass while they realize that you're really telling them to eat shit.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[agnosticnixie]

Amusingly, same in french, except if you happen to have a quebecois cousin on the side, they seem to have loads of invisible Ses tacked on :p

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[AnAdventurer]

Admittedly it works on mechanic's far better then lawyers, but it does work on people in pre-legal environments. But as I tried to convey I use it in a far more subtle way then I actually write a post on /. or else where, being the written words in short post can seriously lack subtlety. It's very hard to come across in way that doesn't make me sound like a dick or scary and I probably fail more often then not (My wife says I scare the crap out of our employees and people I meet in a professional setting can often guess what I have done in my past, sometimes with out even opening my mouth).

As for the sig, I took Latin in HS a over 15 years ago and that's how I remember the expression being worded. Ancient expressions do not always follow correct grammar.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[demonlapin]

Heh. Thanks for the f/u.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

That makes it only that much more foolish. It appears that his entire response has been to e-mail the lawyers repeatedly (and, given the writing quality of his public web page addressing them, one can't expect those e-mails to be a whole lot better). The web page could also be used as an exhibit to an affidavit of default presented to the court, showing that the guy had received effective service of the lawsuit and showed nothing but contempt for the court in response.

I am deeply concerned for the moderators who gave positive points to the comment saying to ignore the lawsuit until there is a hearing on it and negative points to my comment debunking that advice.

If you receive service of a summons for a lawsuit, the summons will inform you of what steps you need to take to avoid a default judgment being obtained against you. It does not matter how frivolous the lawsuit is, if you are served with it and fail to obey the rules, you will end up not being entitled to defend yourself in court and you will be in a very bad situation at the end of the day.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ground.zero.612]

Arj, please enlighten us as to the most polite way to say "FUCK YOU." Until then, FUCK YOU.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

There are many ways, but someone incapable of correctly repeating even three letters properly (my name is not Arj, nor could any person with better than a first-grade education believe it to be based on my screen name ari_j) is most likely uninterested in being polite, mostly for lack of any idea what the term might mean.

Of course, your repeated inability to read and comprehend even the most basic points of this discussion should have been sufficient notification to me that your response would be childish, for values of 'child' approaching Baby K with an anger management problem.

I hope that you've gained from the above lesson in politely being told to go fuck yourself, you retarded infant.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[sabt-pestnu]

The tragedy of a pro se defendant.

I agree: never ignore a lawsuit. I think, though, that there are much better ways of showing evidence of service. Say, court records from the process server. But it does strongly imply that he was given official notice.

Still: lawyer up if at all possible. If nothing else, there's the dream of recovering costs from a frivolous lawsuit. It might also be possible to get the case separated from the other defendants, which would put a spanner in the plantiff's strategy.

I'd mod your reply up, but I'd already commented on this thread.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ground.zero.612]

Arj, please enlighten us as to the most polite way to say "FUCK YOU." Until then, FUCK YOU.

There are many ways, but someone incapable of correctly repeating even three letters properly (my name is not Arj, nor could any person with better than a first-grade education believe it to be based on my screen name ari_j) is most likely uninterested in being polite, mostly for lack of any idea what the term might mean. Of course, your repeated inability to read and comprehend even the most basic points of this discussion should have been sufficient notification to me that your response would be childish, for values of 'child' approaching Baby K with an anger management problem. I hope that you've gained from the above lesson in politely being told to go fuck yourself, you retarded infant.

What I've gained is that a simple spelling mistake due to lame font and underlined handle caused you to go off the deep end and display your true nature. You didn't enlighten us on the most polite way to say fuck you. Kudos. Oh, and FUCK YOU.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

I knew you'd miss the lesson. I even said as much in giving it. At least you have excuses for some of your failings. Those will get you far in life.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ground.zero.612]

I knew you'd miss the lesson. I even said as much in giving it. At least you have excuses for some of your failings. Those will get you far in life.

I knew you'd fail in providing evidence to support your claim. I even offered you the opportunity to provide it. At least you maintain your smarmy attitude in your failings, I'm sure that's some sort of consolation to being unable to do what you claim.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ari_j]

Your illiteracy does not make the things you cannot read false. Good luck out there.

Re:Strongly worded letter?

[ground.zero.612]

Your illiteracy does not make the things you cannot read false. Good luck out there.

In the spirit of fun, I refute your claim of my illiteracy, and once again call attention to your lack of capability in backing up your original claim. For the record, you claimed to be able to express "FUCK YOU" in a polite manner.

Also for the record, I think using explicit language and vulgarity is in effect the opposite of using polite language. Therefore I suggest that saying "FUCK YOU" politely, is a logical fallacy, or at the very least an oxymoron.

Texas is a Ghetto of Injustice

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who has lived in Texas long enough will tell you that our "justice" system is nothing more than a institutionalized way of raping and taxing citizens.

Seriously. Texas' legal system is designed to fuck you every-which way. Got an old insurance policy in your car (which is still active).

You owe $400 dollars and don't even bother bringing your insurance to court until the very day these theives are ready to reschedule your case.

Texas "Justice" is nothing more than legal rape.

Dog Food

[siloko]

Brings a whole new meaning to the expression 'Eat your own dog food!'. I guess after they have finished consuming their local businesses and the employment rate plummets then maybe the local legislators will think again about supporting this kind of bullshit.

Re:Dog Food

[Dachannien]

This doesn't really have anything to do with local legislators. Patent disputes are usually handled in US District Court, meaning that the reason why the Eastern District of Texas has been so friendly to patent trolls is because an unusual number of federal judges in that district are unusually biased in favor of plaintiffs in patent disputes.

Re:Dog Food

[Anonymous Coward]

Local legislators don't have much control. The Federal courts are run by Federal Judges who are appointed by the President. Usually Senators from the state can have some say on what Judges are appointed, but once appointed, the Judge is in for life.

Note that is rare for a newly appointed Federal Judge in a District Court to have any patent experience whatsoever.

Re:Dog Food

[xgr3gx]

East Texas laws need to be locked down to prevent the BS from happening.

Re:Dog Food

[Jaysyn]

Pretty sure you mean federal laws there..

Re:Dog Food

[xgr3gx]

I guess I don't get the whole thing with filing patent cases in East Texas.
A poster a few comments above said Federal Judges in E. Texas seem to favor patent plaintiffs.
Seems odd - somebody has got to be seeding the panel of judges, and it has to be for the purpose of making money on patent law suits.
It wouldn't shock me if some law firm was giving huge election contributions to biased politicians to get these biased judged appointed.
Follow the money - and you'll probably find out why E. Texas is how it is in regards to patent law.

Re:Dog Food

[ari_j]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. This entire comment thread is based on patently false notions of the legal system underlying this situation. First you have the suggestion that local legislators are in favor of patent troll lawsuits. Then, when that's explained to be wrong, you have the suggestion that 'East Texas laws' (whatever those are - East Texas is not its own legislative jurisdiction with its own laws, it's just a federally-created judicial district for the federal courts) should be changed to stop this from happening. I hesitate to imagine what ridiculous idea is going to come up in response to your correction. We can only hope that it's a Godwin-approved car analogy.

Re:Dog Food

[Attila Dimedici]

Thank you. I was wondering the same thing. There are two possibilities. The one you suggested, where some group (probably a law firm) is getting people appointed to the East Texas District Court in order to continue this pattern.
The second is that there is a small group of long serving judges in the East Texas District Court who have bias in favor of patent plaintiffs. If it is the second, a list of these judges should be published and Congress should be encouraged to impeach one or more of them. May I suggest that some group compiles such a list and then starts a campaign to get Congress to impeach the worst violator in the bunch.

Re:Dog Food

[ISoldat53]

The summary assumes that Judges reflect the mores of the community where they live. This is not the case. Once Judges ascend to the bench they are answerable to no one.

Re:Dog Food

[Anonymous Coward]

The judges were appointed at the Federal level (That is appointed by the president, confirmed by the Senate). The judges here do not reflect local views. We have more judges in East Texas than we should have, because of a rich gas field and the resulting litigation over those natural resources. The real reason that this area is picked is because cases are heard very quickly (years earlier in some cases). This has earned our federal district courts the nickname "Rocket Dockets". These scams are perpetrated by following the law to the letter, and the scammers use a speedy trial to there advantage.

Re:Dog Food

[Dachannien]

There are dozens of districts in the federal court system. Just by random chance, it's fairly likely that at least one of them will be off to the side of the bell curve, and once patent plaintiffs noticed which one(s), they started trying to take advantage of it.

Re:Dog Food

[lymond01]

We can only hope that it's a Godwin-approved car analogy.

The way these East Texas judges handle cases is like the way Hitler would drive a ferrari: fast, loose, and to the benefit of one type of people.

Re:Dog Food

[BrookHarty]

This doesn't really have anything to do with local legislators. Patent disputes are usually handled in US District Court, meaning that the reason why the Eastern District of Texas has been so friendly to patent trolls is because an unusual number of federal judges in that district are unusually biased in favor of plaintiffs in patent disputes.

Laws cant be just when when multiple courts are biased and cant agree on the same topic. Its bad enough we have state and federal courts stomping all over each other, we have appeals courts overturning decisions all the time.

Its like rolling dice, doesn't seem to be any logic other than, who has the most money.

It's a shame, that this country is bogged down in this fucking shit :)

Re:Dog Food

[interkin3tic]

This entire comment thread is based on patently false notions of the legal system underlying this situation.

The first and foremost being that lawsuits and lawyers follow a set of logical rules.

Re:Dog Food

[HiThere]

If that's true, I'm appalled. I find it unfortunately convincing.

This sends my opinion of US patent law to new lows, and it was already so low that I believed that all existing patent laws should be immediately repealed, and all existing patents invalidated.

Re:Dog Food

[daemonburrito]

T. John Ward, as well as his son (one of the most sought-after litigators for patent trolls, not coincidentally), are in fact Texans.

The tactic by the patent trolls of adding Texas entities to their complaints is in response to a Writ of Mandamus (an order to comply with the rules) from the Federal Court of Appeals regarding his denial of a motion to move a case to a more appropriate venue in Lear v TS Tech. Shortly before that, in a matter not related to patents but related to venue (In re VW), the 5th District reversed his order that a consumer lawsuit stay in the Eastern District in another mandamus order.

I'm guessing that at this point, courts above Ward's court are no longer snowed by the esoteric nature of patent cases. So the trolls are making sure that their complaints have at least a superficial claim to the venue, to protect their cases from higher (and less friendly) courts.

It's not technically true that a judge is in for life; they can be impeached, and Ward is unlikely to keep on collecting mandamus orders indefinitely.

An impeachment resolution sponsored by a member of the Texas delegation would be taken very seriously in the House. Samuel B. Kent of the Southern District of Texas resigned in the face of an impeachment only a month ago. In fact, Representative Lamar Smith led the effort. He could elect to do the same if Ward keeps up his contempt of superior courts. Of course, Rep Smith will likely choose not to do so (he's a thoroughly corrupt advocate of the wrong side of IP Law, imho: http://www.google.com/search?q=lamar+smith+dmca). If by "local legislators" you mean our federal delegation, then yes, they do have some control.

Re:Dog Food

[Anonymous Coward]

We can only hope that it's a Godwin-approved car analogy.

Well done, sir. 'Volkswagens in the Library of Congress' can now be a measure of creeping fascism.

Amazing patent

[paulhar]

Having just read the patent claims it seems that this patent is on the ability for a linked list to be cleared of expired items. Truly a ground breaking, patent worthy invention!

Re:Amazing patent

[Drakkenmensch]

Your comment just violated my sarcasm patent for "making a comment worded in such a way that it sounds positive while still carrying an implied negative meaning opposite of the actual wording used."

Re:Amazing patent

[Anonymous Coward]

Your comment just violated my patent for "informing a /. poster that they have violated one of my patents."

Re:Amazing patent

[H0p313ss]

Your comment violated my patent on "taking chain jokes one step too far going from funny to redundant"... oh wait...

Re:Amazing patent

[BlueKitties]

Your comment just violated my satire patent for "Making a comment worded in such a way that it sounds like a real claim while still carrying an implied negative meaning in opposition of the sentiment."

Re:Amazing patent

[Fallen Kell]

Too bad it won't stand the Blinski test....

Re:Amazing patent

[budgenator]

Yes it sounded to me like they patented Lisp and it's garbage collection method. Seems like they would be vulnerable to art priori and lack of novelty.

Re:Amazing patent

[fiontan]

... oh wait...

That's ok, it's your own patent

Re:Amazing patent

[jstults]

I think you mean Bilski... http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=69582

Re:Amazing patent

[HeronBlademaster]

I never thought I'd see a patent granted on stuff we pretty much learn in the first few introductory programming courses at $university.

Though they threw hashing into the mix... I'm not really sure how that's relevant to linked lists unless they're actually describing a hash table with chained buckets with on-the-fly removal of expired items. Which makes me wonder, how would you go about removing items in a manner that can't be described as "on-the-fly"? You'd have to go out of your way to ridiculous lengths to do that, I think.

Re:Amazing patent

[sjames]

And deeply unfortunate that it will cost so much to show that in court because the USPTO couldn't be bothered to do it's job..

Re:Amazing patent

[interkin3tic]

Can we see if it stands the Bikini test though?

The bikini test could either be that the lawyers involved have to wear bikinis, it could also involve deporting the lawyers to the bikini atoll and then resuming nuclear tests there.

Actually, that's too much work, I'm just going to look at pictures of women in bikinis now.

Actually... just porn.

And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Viol8]

Why respond professionally to something that is clearly a scam? He's not the CEO of Google with shareholders to worry about FFS, he's just some guy who had a little company and closed it down and is now doing a day job. So he said "fuck". Well stop the press!

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

Respond strongly, sure, but calling them crooks? That's defamation unless he can prove it in court. He's going to get his ass nailed to a cross for it otherwise.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[SpacePunk]

They are lawyers, it's a given that they are crooks.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[sheepofblue]

Always reply professionally. In this case he comes across as someone that is fairly clueless. If he had responded in a professional manner he might have gotten some free "good" publicity

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

Well at least he didn't say "Belgium"...

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

They are lawyers, it's a given that they are crooks.

Sadly, this joke will never go away and is definitely not true. Just look at all those smart individuals with law expertise helping (often for free) the little guys out there. And no, it's not always other lawyers out for a quick buck targeting those people (could be law enforcement for example).

For slashdot, an example of notable good lawyers would be the people at EFF.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[MickyTheIdiot]

They are lawyers, it's a given that they are crooks.

All lawyers are crooks except the one trying to help you out of your mess!

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[The Moof]

Why respond professionally to something that is clearly a scam?

If it ever escalates, you'd be taken more seriously if you wrote a professional response instead of a furious f-bomb filled letter.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

No, that one's a crook too, but when there's a metaphorical gun to your head, you'll pay just about anyone to make the situation go away. If the nation's laws weren't so twisted and byzantine, people could realistically self-represent in court.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

They are lawyers, it's a given that they are crooks.

All lawyers are crooks except the one trying to help you out of your mess!

No, that one's a crook too.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Abcd1234]

Yeah, fuck those filthy crooks at the EFF!

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Khyber]

"Just look at all those smart individuals with law expertise helping (often for free) the little guys out there"

Lawyers are required to give some time pro bono time each year, IIRC.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Khyber]

The fact you let a mere word put you off shows you have no power over yourself, professionalism or not. Believe it or not just about every person I've ever worked with or for used the f-word, quite often. Even my female bosses would swear, sometimes worse than the men!

Professionalism is being able to take the words thrown at you and reply with a better comment that shows your standpoint without resorting to using THE SAME tactics as your opponent.

The professional response, in this case, would be for the company suing this guy to call him a cocksucking whore publicly without ever actually saying so.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

All lawyers are crooks except the one trying to help you out of your mess!

No, they are still crooks. They're just necessary crooks.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[TimSSG]

All lawyers are crooks except the one trying to help you out of your mess!

Note, when you get the bill, they are back to being crooks.

Tim S

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[BrookHarty]

They are lawyers, it's a given that they are crooks.

All lawyers are crooks except the one trying to help you out of your mess!

Wait till you get the bill.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

No, even those guys are crooks. 33% of a $100K settlement + expenses for what probably amounted to 20 hours worth of work?

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

All lawyers are crooks including the one charging exorbitant sums and stringing your case out until you run out of money!

There, fixed that for you.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[wastedlife]

How would you react if you were served papers to appear in court against a patent troll for a business you no longer run and for a patent that you did not violate? I would be absolutely furious and would probably not react any better. It is much easier to act high and mighty from behind a computer screen and your ass is not on the line.

It is obvious that he was only sued so because he lives in East Texas presently and had a software-related business. He is being used as a gateway to sue in that patent-holder friendly district. It is total bullshit and he called them out on it.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

They are lawyers, it's a given that they are crooks.

All lawyers are crooks except the one trying to help you out of your mess!

And NYCL.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[jdgeorge]

"Just look at all those smart individuals with law expertise helping (often for free) the little guys out there"

Lawyers are required to give some time pro bono time each year, IIRC.

No, lawyers are not required to do any pro bono work (in the US, at least). The bar associations recommend some amount of pro bono work, but there are no requirements.

See the super-authoritative Wikipedia article covering the topic.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Khyber]

Yes, and you can be disbarred for not following the ethics rules set forth. Just having a chat with my lawyer, the one helping me with the EA/Spore case.

So maybe not by law but you are required to do so by the association itself.

Re:And what Bedrock is doing *IS* professional??

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact that you have to pay someone to help you out of a mess that someone else put you in for absolutely no fault of your own, shows a crooked system. Anyone supporting the system, by association is a crook. It's Extortion 101.

Someone hires a lawyer, sues you ... you have no choice but to hire a lawyer to represent you and interpret the law and basically go through all the court hassle so you don't make bureaucratic mistakes filling out Form 1023-3498F with a black pen instead of filling out Form 1023-3498.7G with a green crayon ... but THAT one, the one that's taking your money so the other lawyer can't take more of your money, THAT one is ok. Not really.

The system is crooked, thus any cog in the system is supporting crookedness, and a crook by association.

Watch the excellent movie Interstate 60, particularly the bit when they get to Moorelaw.

Damn!

[Anonymous Coward]

Patent trolls?

You mean someone has patented In Soviet Russia jokes, hot grits, and goatse redirects?

Re:Damn!

[ari_j]

Those would be troll patents. This is about patent trolls. But English has a patented word order, so if you're not a native speaker this can be forgiven.

Re:Damn!

[sabt-pestnu]

Fortunately for you, the patent was issued a long time ago. Unless you're using "SMS-speak", the patent period will have expired. ... is that a blackberry in your hand? Heave to, and prepare to be litigated!

Editorial suggestions

[Anonymous Coward]

His letter looks like a refugee from Geocities, circa 1998. I say, go with that! Needs more animated GIFs.

The U.S. is a Ghetto of Injustice

[Anonymous Coward]

"... our "justice" system is nothing more than a institutionalized way of raping and taxing citizens."

Also, the U.S. financial system, such as Goldman Sachs, is nothing more than...

Re:Texas

[Anonymous Coward]

"Does anything come from TX that is good and decent?"

Tex-Mex food and Tejanos in general. This problem solves itself once all the white men are run out of Texas, which demographically will be in about 25 years. Eventually they will all be concentrated in Idaho, and we can nuke that from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Karma

[jvkjvk]

funny how things work out, isn't it?

Re:Texas

[robot_love]

I feel obligated to say that, while I have seen repeated admonitions not to "mess" with that particular state, hating it should be fine.

Good

[Brownstar]

Hopefully now that actual citizens of East Texas are being targeted, the citizens will start to vote these types of judges out of office.

Re:Good

[russotto]

Hopefully now that actual citizens of East Texas are being targeted, the citizens will start to vote these types of judges out of office.

-1, Did Not Do The Research

Federal judges are appointed for life, not elected.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

This is Federal court, champ.

Judges are appointed for life by the president at the time --- according to Wikipedia, Reagan appointed 1, Clinton 3, and G. W. Bush 4 of the judges,

Re:Good

[Culture20]

Hopefully now that actual citizens of East Texas are being targeted, the citizens will start to vote these types of judges out of office.

-1, Did Not Do The Research

Federal judges are appointed for life, not elected.

-1, Did Not Do The Research
Citizens of Texas own lotsa guns, and Texans still have no great love for anything Federal.

Re:Good

[snspdaarf]

Citizens of Texas own lotsa guns, and Texans still have no great love for anything Federal.

One would presume that includes no great love for federal prison? Threatening a federal judge with bodily harm or death, or causing same, is something that will get you hit with the shit-hammer.

Re:Good

[Shakrai]

Citizens of Texas own lotsa guns, and Texans still have no great love for anything Federal.

And yet the good citizens of the great State of Texas allowed the Feds to murder 76 people after lying to obtain a search warrant and bumbling the execution of it in a manner that was all but guaranteed to result in violence.

Re:Good

[Anonymous Coward]

the good citizens of the great State of Texas allowed the Feds to murder 76 people after lying to obtain a search warrant and bumbling the execution of it

Asked...

in a manner that was all but guaranteed to result in violence.

And answered.

Re:Good

[Fear the Clam]

Federal judges are appointed for life, not elected.

Depends on the level of federal judge. Bankruptcy judges are appointed to a 14-year term. It's a trivial matter to re-up for another 14 years, but paperwork is required.

Re:Good

[sjames]

Federal judges are appointed for life, not elected.

That suggests a rather extreme solution....

Re:Good

[tompaulco]

Federal judges are appointed for life, not elected.
What comes after the ballot box if that doesn't work? The Ammo box? Sounds like life is not going to be a problem either. Not in East Texas.

Re:Good

[DamienNightbane]

That sounds much easier to fix than if they were publicly elected.

Re:Good

[Ant P.]

That's not extreme for Texas.

abuse of process

[vginders]

> "It will be interesting to see how East Texas judges respond
> to this abuse of process perpetrated against their own residents."

abuse of process? Does such a thing exist in the USA?

Re:abuse of process

[PitaBred]

In theory it does. In practice, not so much.

Referer protection

[tepples]

http://plif.courageunfettered.com/archive/wc210.gif

JPEG image, 20x20 pixels. Please cite the HTML page ( The Parking Lot is Full, Dec 04), not the image, next time.

Re:Referer protection

[lordofthechia]

It's the comic on the bottom left, December 04, 1999 comic. The didn't have an html landing for that comic (just the thumbnail sidebar you posted).

Re:Referer protection

[PitaBred]

There are like, 54 different comics on that page. Which one is the relevant one? Why should a website be so poorly structured as to not have any direct links to single comics? That's just stupidity.

Re:Referer protection

[tepples]

The Parking Lot is Full, Dec 04

There are like, 54 different comics on that page. Which one is the relevant one?

That's why I said "Dec 04" in my citation.

Why should a website be so poorly structured as to not have any direct links to single comics?

Likely because people have been embedding single comics in forum posts and running up the (self-)publisher's bandwidth bill.

Re:Referer protection

[PitaBred]

So allow a link to a single comic page, redirect an image to the page "wrapping" the comic or something. Not having a single link to point people to is very web-unfriendly. I know why you block other people from embedding images... I just don't know why the web design is so poor.

Re:Referer protection

[Bigjeff5]

They stopped making the comic in 2002, such website designs were common back then. It's been 7 years man, web design has improved.

Re:Referer protection

[tepples]

Not having a single link to point people to is very web-unfriendly.

Yet it happens so often on the web. In many cases, I've run into a 20,000-word web page with no <a name="..."> elements at the section breaks, so there's no obvious way to link directly to the passage that I want to point out. In such a case, the URL is only part of the citation. Have you tried complaining to the page's author?

Re:Referer protection

[spitzak]

Maybe a new type of link should be added that does a search, or a set of navigation steps.

Re:Texas

[Grimbleton]

I thought Connecticut was responsible for that one...

turn it around...

[nycguy]

Should the FSF open an office in East Texas and launch lawsuits for violating the GPL from there?

Re:turn it around...

[spikeb]

yes

Re:turn it around...

[Jaysyn]

That's pretty damn insightful right there.

Re:turn it around...

[bryguy5]

As someone located in East Texas i feel a little helpless.

The US Federal Judges are Appointed for life as noted elsewhere (TEXAS Judges are voted on so our gun toting citizens do get final say at the state level).

So barring another loony in body armor going crazy with an assault rifle there won't be any quick resolution to this http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=207778

So we are left with the following options.

1) We can ask our Senators and Obama to appoint some Patent Reform minded judge(s) - not sure if there are any openings soon. Maybe Obama would do something that is actually good for Texas.

2) Texas can activate its clause in its original constitution and treaty with the US and secede from the Union - unfortunately this Constitution was amended after the Civil War and this option would no doubt be messier than any Patent Litigation. I'm sure you blue guys would say good riddance but all of you red staters out there would be too envious and we'd probably end up with Civil War II

3) Educate the juries on Patent and Patent Reform. There is 0 public awareness of the patent litigation problem on the street here in East Texas. The reports in the local paper of the patent decisions get read over like little blurbs in the National news. And as we all know the lawyers immediately try to eliminate anyone with any sign of intelligence or free will from the jury pool. I wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper, not sure what else to do.

Any ideas on what could be done by East Texans? Like I mentioned before this is a problem with the U.S. Federal court so we can't use our votes to fix this problem.

Re:turn it around...

[Anonymous Coward]

2) Texas can activate its clause in its original constitution and treaty with the US and secede from the Union - unfortunately this Constitution was amended after the Civil War and this option would no doubt be messier than any Patent Litigation. I'm sure you blue guys would say good riddance but all of you red staters out there would be too envious and we'd probably end up with Civil War II

Texas cannot secede, that's just a myth we Texans hear in junior school Texas History class. See http://www.snopes.com/history/american/texas.asp for a more thorough breakdown.

Re:turn it around...

[HiThere]

Very few GPL violations involve patents.

Re:turn it around...

[daemonburrito]

Any ideas on what could be done by East Texans? Like I mentioned before this is a problem with the U.S. Federal court so we can't use our votes to fix this problem.

This isn't accurate. If Lamar Smith and John Cornyn were voted out of our delegation, and the new House member showed that they were willing to fulfill their oversight duties (up to impeachment of Ward and Davis), the local rules, which are so favorable for plaintiffs, could be changed by pressure.

And anyway, you should check out the IP legislation that our delegation supports. Scary stuff.

See my previous comment. Texans in the federal legislature would be taken very seriously if they were to move to reform E.D. Texas.

Additionally, "U.S. Federal Court" and "District Court" are not synonyms; all Cognac is brandy but not all brandy is Cognac. The district courts were established by acts of Congress, while the Supreme Court was established by the Constitution. Congress is expected to provide oversight for these courts, if anything even more so for District Court. The movement of cases through this level of the system and each court's subject-matter-jurisdiction is set forth by Congress (e.g. Evarts Act, PL 96-452, etc.). It is well with Congress's power to reform E.D. Texas, and changes to the court system occur relatively frequently.

• Legislative history of the Federal Judiciary.
• U.S. District Court
• Eastern District of Texas

Your vote does count.

Re:turn it around...

[bryguy5]

Junior High was a long time ago I was remembering Rick Perry's recent remarks.

http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/8425/can-texas-secede-from-the-union-no

Your right there is no explicit clause stating one way or another. Here are the different sides to the argument.

http://www.texassecede.com/faq.htm

and wikipedia

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

Finally, I don't agree with this guy but I like this quote.

http://westernfrontamerica.com/2009/04/20/texas-eventually-secede-union/

"I say Texans can do whatever the hell they want. Even if U.S. law says Texas cannot secede from the Union, the whole point of declaring independence is to free yourself from such laws"

Not quite as elegant as "For the People and By the People" but we ain't from Boston.

Re:turn it around...

[bryguy5]

I need a little more background. Why focus on John Cornyn and Lamar Smith? Are the rest of the 32 Texas Reps and Kay Bailey up for patent reform? Or are these guys on the right committees or something?

Re:turn it around...

[daemonburrito]

Yep.

Cornyn is on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and is constantly emailing me to brag about sponsoring legislation that "protects America's intellectual property". He was also both an elected Texas SC judge and a federal district judge.

Smith is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and in that capacity moved to impeach a judge in S.D. Texas just last month. The committee's current jurisdiction includes "copyright, patent and trademark law, information technology", on top of oversight duties regarding the courts.

The committee's name is a bit misleading, really. Its purview includes both issues we're talking about here; patent reform and judicial oversight.

Smith was also the chair of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property while it existed.

Ha

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm very glad when I hear news like this one.
I'm glad because hopefully is this kind of trials that will make people realize how stupid software patents are.
I do hope more of this happen, but I feel sorry for those who are the victims right now.
If is there any kind of consolation, it resides on knowing that you are contributing to the fight against this shit.

To the brothers and sisters who stand and fight, I leave a word:

Don't stand down, don't give up. You are the heroes of the modern age.

Some lack of Freedom

[Anonymous Coward]

God Bless America......

Some land of the Free!

Re:Texas

[shadowmage36]

Yes, and we're still sorry about that.

http://hoaxblog.s3.amazonaws.com/birthplace.jpg

Dangerous Activity

[gravos]

Filing a lawsuit against an individual or small business (ie, any entity that is not a corporation) who has not harmed you is kind of like walking up to a stranger on the street and punching him in the face. You'll probably get away with it a few times, but eventually you'll pick the wrong person and get what's coming to you.

The plaintiffs should be lucky this guy is content to put a 'strongly worded' letter on his website.

So Let's Change The System

[edizzle2]

Some interesting comments, I'd be interested in hearing what would you change with patents, or if abandon altogether - what could be used to replace them without causing disruptions for all the small software shops that currently use patents to protect their innovation?

Re:So Let's Change The System

[jedidiah]

Small software shops did just fine before this patent mess.

They will do do better. They won't have to worry about XOR, linked list or VFAT patents anymore.

The idea that the "little guy" needs patents is so bogus and thoroughly disproven that anyone that dares bring up the idea should walk around with a paper grocery sack on their head.

Re:So Let's Change The System

[Attila Dimedici]

I would recommend that patents for software and business methods be eliminated and merely rely on copyright to protect software. Patents should be reserved for things that have a physical component.

Re:Texas

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, Tejanos.

May their clown music and fender vents save us all!

Re:Texas

[Shakrai]

This problem solves itself once all the white men are run out of Texas, which demographically will be in about 25 years. Eventually they will all be concentrated in Idaho, and we can nuke that from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I find it hypocritical that you got positive moderation for this when a similar post aimed at a different race would have modded down as the racist garbage that it is.

Good news in the long term

[Anonymous Coward]

In many places in the US, there is a vote on whether judges are retained or removed from the bench. If the patent trolls piss off the local population enough, the local population may be motivated to remove the problematic judges from the bench. Since most of us can't vote on these particular judges, this must surely be a good thing. I really hope this patent trolls keep up this line of attack

East Texas troll friendliness is well known

[erroneus]

I was reading about how Bilski is threatening software patents and how some sides are saying "It ain't over yet!" and are interpreting the interest taken by the supreme court as intent to overturn the Bilski decision. On the other hand, at least one supreme court justice is well aware of the questionable nature of the East Texas court and has expressed dislike for it. From that I can see that perhaps the SCOTUS would like to finally reign in the lower courts and the abuse that is propagated by the East Texas court.

I believe the Bilski decision represents a restoration of sanity to patent law and process as I am sure that others here will agree. When it comes to technology, interoperability and compatibility are absolutely critical to growth and development of new technology as increasingly one thing builds on another very rapidly. To patent software literally and directly imposes roadblocks, or more exactly, private toll blocks on technological progress. One could even argue that without reigning in such practices, the U.S. will be giving up its position of technological superiority because of such abusive greed.

Re:East Texas troll friendliness is well known

[Theaetetus]

I was reading about how Bilski is threatening software patents and how some sides are saying "It ain't over yet!" and are interpreting the interest taken by the supreme court as intent to overturn the Bilski decision. On the other hand, at least one supreme court justice is well aware of the questionable nature of the East Texas court and has expressed dislike for it. From that I can see that perhaps the SCOTUS would like to finally reign in the lower courts and the abuse that is propagated by the East Texas court.

These are two entirely different things. Bilksi is about what stuff qualifies as patentable subject matter. East Texas being the preferred district for patent trolls is about forum shopping in infringement suits. They're not at all related.

In fact, the Supreme Court hearing Bilski will have absolutely no relevance to forum shopping. Bilski - rather In re Bilski - was an appeal from a rejection of the Patent Office. That's why it's "In re[gards to] Bilski" rather than "Bilski v. So-and-so". Infringement suits, on the other hand, are post-patent, and are always between a patent holder and an alleged infringer.

Re:East Texas troll friendliness is well known

[erroneus]

While reading through various discussions related to the SCOTUS accepting the appeal re Bilski, one of the SC judges SPECIFICALLY mentioned the E.Texas court with regards to their views on problems with patents. At the moment, i don't feel like digging through my browser history, but a google of "Bilski Software Patents" will reveal numerous articles expressing opinions on both sides and among the first 20, you will likely find the article containing quotations naming the specific judge from my recollection.

It does indeed have some relevance if the judges hearing the cases are concerned about it and are sending instructions down to them. I have reason to think they might.

Re:Texas

[Lil'wombat]

If I owned Hell and Texas, I'd live in Hell and rent out Texas

Re:Texas

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, that's a good point but lets reverse it to make sure. IT might be better to push all the Mexicans back down to Mexico and nuke it out of existence.

We can't get rid of the white people, because they seem to pay all the bills.

Re:Texas

[splat-boing]

yeah well...we hate you too...

Re:Texas

[splat-boing]

another coward strikes again...

Re:Texas

[michaelhood]

This problem solves itself once all the white men are run out of Texas, which demographically will be in about 25 years. Eventually they will all be concentrated in Idaho, and we can nuke that from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

I find it hypocritical that you got positive moderation for this when a similar post aimed at a different race would have modded down as the racist garbage that it is.

It's OK to be racist against white people, where have you been?

As a poor soul who just moved from East Texas..

[SuperCharlie]

If there is any bias in the courts there, it's that they love to see the poor guy win the lottery and the big corp take it on the chin David Vs Goliath style. Being any kind of big or out of state company suing someone in East Texas without a dam good reason will probably not end well for said company. Unless of course there's some money carelessly forgotten somewhere..that's a different story...

Re:As a poor soul who just moved from East Texas..

[HiThere]

That's not the apparent history of East Texas courts WRT patents. Note that these are federal courts, not state.

I suspect that you are thinking about state courts. WRT them I don't have any information.

Re:Texas

[bertoelcon]

Does anything come from TX that is good and decent?

We have Tex-Mex, NASA Mission Control, and part of the bible belt.

All the people there seem to be flag-waving conservative rednecks.

That's just the ones that left or get on the news.

And they foisted GWB on us.

We didn't foist GWB on you, but you weren't supposed to give him back.

I hate Texas.

I hate humans.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Texas

[haifastudent]

"Don't Mess with Texas" is trademarked, not patented, by the Texas Department of Transportation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Mess_with_Texas

Re:Texas

[meador]

That's because it would be cheaper to air condition* Hell than Texas.**

*Yes, "air condition" is a verb in Texas
**I've also see the reason listed as "Because Hell isn't as hot and the people there don't lie as much.

No Customers

[neonprimetime]

Nate Neel, a Longview, Texas resident with a small open source software company called CitiWare, was sued by Bedrock Computer Technologies in June despite (he claims) having no customers or other meaningful operations of any kind.

It's no wonder he has no customers! Just look at that god-awful poorly designed website that wouldn't even get a passing grade in an HTML 101 course! the colors, the font ... makes me wanna puke

Which we wouldn't be in

[JuicyBrain]

... if it wasn't for lawyers.
'Nuff said!

The "E" is SLIENT (sic) DUDE

[JohnnyComeLately]

Publik educashun, didn't you lissen? The word slime has a silent e, so you can omit the letter! You wouldn't want to think he was saying slim-ee (spelled slimey, a completely different word which crosses over from a noun to adjective!!)

Nate Neel

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi All,
Yes it's me, Nate Neel.
Sorry for the grammatical errors, those will be fixed soon. I uploaded this from a cell phone to my website in haste.

As far as professionalism goes - WHY! I do not have a company, I have no customers and I have not used any code from someone else - period!

I get a lawsuit because I live in East Texas and at one point tried to start a tech company!

Sorry to all the grammar Nazis and professional experts - I'm just a dude with a job supporting my family! I still have the freedom of speech and ability to express how I feel about an attack on me anyway I see fit.

I've done nothing wrong and I'm still being sued. See how you feel when you get a lawsuit sent to your house that has nothing to do with any facts or truths - You might get a bit upset!

Memo to East Texans

[T.E.D.]

Your northern neighbors up here in Oklahoma have a saying: If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas.

Re:Strongly worded letter? KUDOS TO HIM

[Nom du Keyboard]

I'm going to go ahead and point out that repeatedly dropping the F-bomb is not "strongly worded" it is "unprofessional".

It may be "unprofessional", but kudos to him for saying what everyone else involved in this is thinking and wishing they could say as well.

Re:Dog Food-It's The Juries, Stupid!

[Nom du Keyboard]

the reason why the Eastern District of Texas has been so friendly to patent trolls is because an unusual number of federal judges in that district are unusually biased in favor of plaintiffs in patent disputes.

It's not the judges that decide so many of these cases in the Plaintiff's favor, but the East Texas juries that do so. Why? Nobody has really said yet, but I'd be testing the drinking water there for a start.

Re:abuse of process-RIAA

[Nom du Keyboard]

abuse of process? Does such a thing exist in the USA?

If it did then the RIAA would long since be out of the lawsuit business -- and probably bankrupt from the sanctions imposed on them.

Re:Ha-NOT! + PATENT EXPLAINED IN BASIC

[Nom du Keyboard]

I'm glad because hopefully is this kind of trials that will make people realize how stupid software patents are.

This isn't about stupid software patents (see below). It's about suing the wrong person just because you want somebody in the district where you want your suit heard.

As for people understanding now the problems here with software patents, most people wouldn't know what a linked-list is if it bit them in the butt and picked their pocket. This adds nothing to their understanding of the issue.

As for this patent itself, sounds like:

10 TRAVERSE TO NEXT NODE
20 IF EXPIRED THEN REMOVE NODE
30 IF NOT LAST NODE THEN GOTO 10
40 END

I doubt that it was explained to the Patent Office in such simple terms, but even if it was I doubt that they actually understood it.

Re:Texas-Scratch TexMex

[Nom du Keyboard]

We have Tex-Mex

Scratch that. I much more prefer the traditional Mexican that you find in California and Arizona to that TexMex mashup.

Maybe we should let Texas secede from the Union just to lose East Texas courts.

Re:Texas

[Panaflex]

Nothing good comes from Texas, just stay the hell away!!!

We've got the worlds highest unemployment, the worst "educashion", and it's always hotter than hell.

We all sit around and watch FOX NEWS.

We drive like maniacs in 8 ton trucks.

We eat salsa for breakfast, beans for lunch, and tequila for dinner.

Our favorite hobbies are huntin', yellin', and starin'.

Lastly, 15% of all military recruits are from Texas... that should scare the bejesus out of anybody.

.

Seriously, just stay away. So just forget you ever heard about Texas. I hear there's plenty of room in Rhode Island. Alaska is really cozy. How about Wyoming? California has wonderful fruit this time of year.

.

And you can be reassured that by "Staying the Hell out of Texas" (tm), that we can continue to provide you with oil, salsa, Shiner Bock, Dell Computers, Steak & BBQ, American & SouthWest Airlines, and $150 billion in exports.

.

Note: temporary visas are provided to visit the National Shrine of the Alamo for "well qualified" customers.

Re:Texas

[Anonymous Coward]

We drive like maniacs in 8 ton trucks.

4 ton trucks with large trailers.

We eat salsa for breakfast, beans for lunch, and tequila for dinner.

Tequila is breakfast and dinner, sometimes lunch too.

The rest, surprisingly accurate.

Re:Texas

[agrounds]

Not all of us are loons. I know this will come as a shock, but some of us are not Republicans, we don't watch Bill O'Reilly, and we were just as embarrassed about Bush Jr. as everyone else.

Besides, everything in your comment could be said about any state. Look in the news on any given day and see the lunacy, crime, and ridiculous things going on all over the country.

Or do you just want a punching bag and Texas is your current choice?

Sweeping generalizations and ignorant commentary only make you look just as bad as those you would condemn.

Re:Dog Food-It's The Juries, Stupid!

[linzeal]

East Texas is one of the most staunchly conservative areas of the west. There is no way to get a balanced jury pool to even have a chance on any social or tech issue there that is not the status quo ( which in Texas is conservative ) or big business. This is the reason I believe juries should be selected nationwide and be done via teleconferencing software. That is a jury of my 'peers'.

Re:Texas

[GoodNicksAreTaken]

You're one of the Dixie Chicks aren't you.

Re:Texas

[Anonymous Coward]

What is a fender vent and how will they save us? And do Tejanos really listen to clown music?

Is it still 2006?

[harlows_monkeys]

In a sign that patent trolls are getting desperate to keep their cases in East Texas â" long known as the friendliest venue for their claims

EDT has been fairly hostile to plaintiffs from 2007 on.

Re:Texas

[palegray.net]

Change We Can Believe In.

Oh, wait.

Re:Texas

[palegray.net]

Like many English terms, the pronunciation differs from the obvious solution derived from a phonetic approach. It's actually pronounced "ayrcondishunin".

Re:Texas

[palegray.net]

Epic Win

Swearing != scamming

[Anonymous Coward]

He could swear like a sailor and he's still the better man. So he lowers himself slightly. Still not close to the underhandedness of the people he's dealing with.

There *are* good lawyers out there

[phorm]

I've always found it akin to pit-bulls. There are some that are nice, but a goodly number of them are dangerous even when they're yours, and more-so when they're somebody elses.

That being said, I've met some truly respectable lawyers. When I did have to pursue a company on an injury claim, I had initially consulted a lawyer and he even prepared some initial paperwork. During the interum my rather strongly worded "start answering my calls or you will be sued" letter reached the company, which they were required to forward to their insurance corp. The insurance corp actually treated me like a human, so I left off suing. The lawyer was very understanding of this, and even declined payment for the work he had done.

I ended up settling up with the insurance corp on my own. For the record on that too, a lot of Insurance Corps are rather hostile when dealing with claims, but this one was very good from start to finish.

I'd rather have not had the broken bones that resulted in the whole thing, but overall I found their offer and their response to my counters reasonable and personable in terms of what monetary compensation can do for such things (and they also had the problem/negligence which resulted in my injury fixed rather quickly).

So while the typical lawyer or big corp, insurance corp, etc is often portayed as money-grubbing sharks, not all of them are so.

Sorry to double post...

[daemonburrito]

But to put it bluntly: They're Texans, and it's part their jobs on the hill to do something about E.D. Texas's problems. Their inaction is approval of this court.

Best response?

[Mike Rice]

Dear Bedrock et al...

In response to your recent communication, demanding treble damages for illegal use of your Intellectual 'Property...

Upon review of our ledger, we have determined that our profit on this product amounted to negative $5000.
That is $ -5000.00 Dollars in US currency.

We therefore accept your kind offer, and look forward to timely receipt of your payment to us for $15,000 US.

We normally accept payment only by PayPal or Google Checkout, but in this instance we will waive that requirement, to allow payment by Cashiers Check, Money Order, or Western Union.
Please make payable to...
  FU Bedrock
  LongView, East Texas

Thank you for your prompt attention too this matter!

The law may be the same, but the people aren't.

[Anonymous Coward]

What, you mean other than the stories about companies sponsoring local events, or all those law firms bringing money & jobs to an otherwise backwater place? There ARE reasons why so many lawsuits get filed in East Texas, you know. It's not just random chance that several patent firms have set up shop in the middle of nowhere. You're right that the law is the same everywhere, but the jury pool (and the judges) are not. This goes double when it's a small jurisdiction with only a few judges. Even the Supreme Court has made offhand comments about them...

Now, there are several reasons for patent plaintiffs to favor East Texas. One is that it's a "rocket docket." As you know, being a lawyer, that means the case will go to trial and be wrapped up quickly (this is the one aspect I don't mind them selecting jurisdictions for). Secondly, the juries there are quite favorable to patent plaintiffs. Third, the judges (and there aren't very many in that district) are very favorable to patent plaintiffs. Forth, there are a number of law firms specializing in patent lawsuits nearby (this is a side effect of the above, but it makes things convenient for patent plaintiffs). Fifth, the rules on jurisdiction tend to allow you to pick your jurisdiction for patent claims (this may not be completely true thanks to a recent bit of precedent, but I haven't yet seen any stories about whether or not the "Get out of East Texas free" precedent works or not, though this story may indicate that it at least worries the NPEs [AKA "patent trolls"]).

Now, I know that someone will quote me that statistic that shows that of the cases that *go to trial*, East Texas looks fairly normal as to how often they find for the plaintiffs. What that ignores is the reputation of the venue and how many cases get settled beforehand, just because they expect to lose anything but a strong case. So even the strongest cases have only slightly better than average success in East Texas, once you factor that in.

Re:The law may be the same, but the people aren't.

[ari_j]

The original point, which was that the East Texas legislators need to fix their laws that allow this to happen, is still ludicrous. No Texas legislator, at the state or federal level, can change how federal jury selection works. If you want them to change how venue shopping works, that's been a problem for a long time that does from time to time get legislative attention.

Fun with patent trolls

[Anonymous Coward]

We had a troll come after us one time. It was pretty damn funny.

They claimed one of our products violated one of their patents. We asked when the patent was awarded.

"Oh 1999."
"Really! You're sure it was 1999?"
"Yup! Negotiate or die!"
"Hmmm. Well, you see, son, we've been selling that there product since 1992 and here's a data sheet for it from 1992 and you see the screen shot on the front - it even shows the very thing you say you have patented and that you claim we are violated! I think that's called prior art, asshole"
" "

They disappeared damn quick and we never heard from them again - probably because if we ever got wind who they were shaking down we could be a witness against them both to enable their victims to get their money back plus interest but also to sue them for stuff related to professional misconduct and lack of due diligence. Might even get them disbarred.

We really enjoyed it. But I would have enjoyed it better if we could have given what all patent troll lawyer really deserve: a bullet between the eyes and a bullet in the heart. It's the only way to be sure.