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Judge Orders Patent Troll To Explain Its 'Mr. Sham' To Jury

Posted by samzenpus on from the that-name-again-is-mr.-sham dept.

netbuzz writes "Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has no problem calling Network Protection Sciences (NPS) a patent troll. What he does have a problem with is NPS telling a Texas court that NPS had an 'ongoing business concern' in that state run by a 'director of business development' when all it really had was a rented file-cabinet room and the 'director' was actually the building landlord who merely signed legal papers when NPS told him to do so. Judge Alsup calls the alleged business a 'sham' and the non-employee 'Mr. Sham,' yet he declined to dismiss the patent infringement lawsuit filed by NPS against Fortinet from which this information emerged. Instead, he told NPS, 'this jury is going to hear all of this stuff about the closet. And you're going to have to explain why "Mr. Sham" was signing these documents.'"

5 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Wish I could buy that judge a beer by PerformanceDude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    William Alsup deserves a medal for finally pushing those trolls a little. Too long have they been getting away with venue shopping and the abusive use of threats to sue. Time to sit back and watch the fireworks...

    --
    Meus subcriptio est nocens Latin quoniam bardus populus reputo is sanus callidus
    1. Re:Wish I could buy that judge a beer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you're going to be on a jury, you might as well get to do some justice.

  2. Re:Too bad by fustakrakich · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are you kidding? The banks are a full on mafia operation, like the Borgias in the Vatican (original storyline for The Godfather), absolutely untouchable. Cross them, and you won't see the next sunrise. This guy is a flea, like Bernie Madoff.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  3. yet East Texas refused to hear this case by raymorris · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And yet, it seems even east Texas is getting tired of seeing these same patent trolls in their courts every week.

  4. Re:We've heard from Judge Alsup before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I hope once this trial concludes we can get an Ask Slashdot with him.