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First Government Lawsuit Against a Patent Troll

Posted by samzenpus on from the when-the-man-comes-around dept.

walterbyrd writes "Late last year, a vigorous and secretive patent troll began sending out thousands of letters to small businesses all around the country, insisting that they owed between $900 and $1,200 per worker just for using scanners. The brazen patent-trolling scheme, carried out by a company called MPHJ technologies and dozens of shell companies with six-letter names, has caught the attention of politicians. MPHJ and its principals may have gone too far. They're now the subject of a government lawsuit targeting patent trolling—the first ever such case. Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell has filed suit in his home state, saying that MPHJ is violating Vermont consumer-protection laws."

3 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Unintended consequences. by gnasher719 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Generally the goverment doesn't decide who is and who isn't a troll. The Attorney General can only sue based on current law, and the judge getting the case can only decide based on current law. "Patent Troll" is not a legal term, and MPHJ doesn't get sued for being a patent troll, but for fraudulently representing what they are selling (licenses to patents they claim to have exclusive rights on, which they don't have, for instance).

    According to the article, they are in trouble because they threatened to sue people for patent infringement, when they had (1) not checked whatsoever if patent infringement had been committed, and when (2) they had no intent whatsoever to take anyone to court but only were interested in settlement payments.

    They would have been fine if they actually had checked that there was at least a likelihood for patent infringement, and if they then had taken people to court.

  2. Re:They took it seriously? by alanbdee5808 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It happens far more common then most people think. I worked at a company where the Accountant was paying bills as they come in. It was only after she left and her replacement questioned it did we realize that we'd been paying a company like that for years.

  3. Re:Nah, just keep on sleeping while the wheels tur by Runaway1956 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "There's just no federal laws they can really go after these fuckers for violating."

    RICO

    http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-rico-law.htm#did-you-know

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