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Judge Posner To Apple & Motorola: Go Home
reebmmm writes "Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner, voluntarily sitting as a district court judge, in the patent infringement dispute between Apple and Motorola has, tentatively, dismissed the case on the eve of trial. In this hilariously short order, Judge Posner states, 'I have tentatively decided that the case should be dismissed with prejudice because neither party can establish a right to relief.' Because it is 'with prejudice' the parties cannot refile their case. The parties are likely to appeal the order (when it's finalized)."
Never seen it before. I guess this case is important! lol
Sounds like ol'timey judgin'.
Y'all idjits go home now, and stop actin' like children in my here courtroom.
You shouldn't. That means you're seeing it before it has gone live. Which is generally a plum that only subscribers enjoy.
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This seems like common sense and the first good news in a while about our seemingly broken patent system.
It seems to me that if it can be done on a computer any computer, than it's not automatically "novel" if you can do it on a slightly different type of computer (desktop, laptop, mobile device, in car navigation system, etc.) Stop "pretending" to invent something new for Mobile devices when the same technology already exists for desktops, Etc.
http://www.hawknest.com/
of the job a judge is supposed to do.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
"...I may change my mind..."
I don't hear no fat lady yet
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
... Judge Posner should run back over to his appeals court and tell them to go home again. :P
Posner is my new favorite judge. He also supports legalization of marijuana and LSD.
Read the ruling, it is only 1.5 pages, it is worth it :)
22 years ago last December, Judge Posner presided over my marriage.
I knew him a little bit and my wife and I got our marriage license. Posner was walking across Dearborn toward the Daley Center and I introduced him to my bride. We told him we were leaving on a honeymoon the next morning and he invited us to his chambers, which were in the Chancery section of the Circuit Court at the time, if I remember correctly and he performed the ceremony with a law clerk as witness.
We later had a more ceremonial ceremony.
Posner is a pretty good egg. The fact that he was an appointee of Ronald Reagan shows just how far our political frame has come from those days. Not one of the last two Republican presidents would have touched nominating Posner because the Republicans in congress would have shit themselves, not to mention the current Republican (free) base.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"I may change my mind."
Dismissing a case with prejudice... oh, but he might change his mind. Ridiculous.
Dear Apple,
Stop patenting trivial shit. If you exclude the Apple acolytes, everyone is pissed off at your pathetic nitpicking law suits for bleedingly obvious "inventions". You are really working hard at becoming the new Microsoft.
Dear Samsung, ... and that includes their pathetic lawsuits. Do you want to be labelled the new Microsoft? Don't use Apple as a role model, use Google - think about the community.
Stop copying Apple
hell yea. i hope there appeal gets denied as well. and they better count there blessings and just go home if it did go to trial he would have just tossed both there patents and tossed the case anyways.
Did you deliberately try to misuse the word "there" (hint: try "their") as many times as you could in one sentence, or are you just an idiot?
Punctuation, capitalization and grammar are your friends.
And yet, we get a link to scribd.com. Why? Did someone think we'd miss all the overhead of oddball formatting, disks spinning, Facebook popups and network LEDs flashing?
Have gnu, will travel.
Wow!! Your IQ must be really high ... compared to a 1/3 full glass of water.
The story started with some facts about his wedding ..... and turned into nothing more than political b!tch!ng.
Good grief, I didn't realize Tea Baggers came to Slashdot...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
In this corner, we have... ANONYMOUS COWARD!!!
And his opponent, in the other core, ANONYMOUS COWARD!!!
This is the fight of the century, gentlemen... *DINGDING!* Here we go!
Lots of deranged Libduhtarian types on /.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
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To be fair, that AC may just be a kid in elementary school. How many people teen-aged or older would make that "1/3 full glass of water" insult without a hint of irony?
Reading it, tentatively, sound like, panting.
Wow, Both parties got got the judicial version of Screw you guys I am going home. Why should the court waste its time when you will apeal it later.
Trully a great moment for the US Judicial System.
Almost as good as when the Death Star (AT&T) was destroyed by Judge Greene in 1981.
You're the dummy. You are, you are.
Everybody knows it's a 2/3 empty glass of water.
You are welcome on my lawn.
This guy is the most accomplished, most intelligent judge who will never ever be considered by anyone for an appointment to SCOTUS. He's way too frank, way too likely to follow his own excellent interpretation of the pro-social intentions behind laws and is routinely completely inappropriate, at least as adjudicated by either and both sides of the current US political bifurcation.
Although some observers count him as a conservative, ( I guess because he's not expressly liberal?) the kind of independence, fearlessness and good common sense he delivers on a regular basis, often in pithy, high IQ, quotable-quote form, makes him ineligible to be considered one of the current crop of psycho, Ayn Rand worshiping, anti-science anti-evolution religious zealots that is the means test for "conservatives" these days.
If we could populate our court system with judges like this guy (Republicans would filibuster) , our nation's judiciary would work more like it's supposed to and less like a force multiplier for corporations and special interests.
If you're into the law either where it intersects with tech or broader society, this is a guy's name is worthy of a weekly Google alert.
Some very Posnerian Posner quotes:
âoeModern judicial opinions tend to be too long, and we shall try to be brief. We shall even forgo the usual prefatory statement of facts, which would disclose an utterly routine, though very large, illegal drug operation.â
U.S. v. Herrera-Medina (1988).
âoeThe filing of an appeal should never be a conditioned reflex. About half the practice of a decent lawyer consists in telling would-be clients that they are damned fools and should stop.â Hill v. Norfolk & Western Railway Co. (1987)
And here's one that's sure to raise his esteem around these parts: .
âoeGilding the lily, the officer testified that he was additionally suspicious because when he drove by [the suspect] in his squad car before turning around and getting out and accosting him he noticed that [the suspect] was âstar[ing] straight ahead.â(TM) Had [the suspect] instead glanced around him, the officer would doubtless have testified that [he] seemed nervous or, the preferred term because of the vagueness, âfurtive.â(TM) Whether you stand still or move, drive above, below or at the speed limit, you will be described by the police as acting suspiciously should they wish to stop or arrest you. Such subjective, promiscuous appeals to an ineffable intuition should not be credited.â U.S. v. Broomfield (2005)
And finally:
âoeOnce a case gets to the jury, all bets are off.â Speakers of Sport Inc. v. ProServ Inc. (1999)
A modern day Learned Hand.
Learned Hand- only the greatest given name, ever.
Bash Ayn Rand, get modded up!
Thanks for the tip!
So, if one of them won, we lose, if the other won, we lose . . . this seems like we REALLY lose with option C.
Honestly, this whole thing coming to a head in the US and the courts 'settling' it had the potential to start reform. It probably wouldn't have done that, but it had potential. Waiting for the last minute and cancelling was childish and to make a point, but the point wasn't "I love you both equally" --- as he's treating them as squabbling kids . . .
To me, this whole thing says nothing more than his opinion is the system is fine, not broken, and we should still go about things for the next ten years just as we have in the past.
To me, we lose.
Will Posner singlehandedly force an end to the endlessly-escalating mobile patent wars? Let's hope so. At the very least, his opinion seems to indicate that he realizes the ridiculous (and, often, baseless) nature of all of this never-ending patent litigation.