Slashdot Mirror
EFF Asks Appeals Court To "Shut Down the Eastern District of Texas" (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge have asked a federal appeals court to make big changes to the rules governing venue in patent cases. The two public interest groups are seeking to file an amicus brief (PDF) which attacks the Eastern District of Texas as being one of the "most notorious situations of forum shopping in recent history." This district has made quite a few appearances on Slashdot; this is one of my favorites.
"Throughout the history of civilized peoples, only the excess born of tyrants and brigands yearned for memory in abundance of 640K" -- Charles, Prince of Wales.
The whole justice system should be shut down. It's pretty redundant anyway since the outcome is given by the amount of money spent.
Help Wanted:
An editor who knows how to add relevant links to a posted story.
Send your resume to Dice Holdings Inc.
Netcraft confirms that slashdot is now an echo chamber.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Judge Davis retired... No one is hearing patent cases anymore in the Eastern District of Texas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...
With a few seconds editing, this could have been in the summary.
Good luck with that.
Constitutionally, courts are established by acts of congress. Congress has repeatedly failed to act to protect sanity in patent system.
Is it possible to change rules to prevent forum shopping? A bit, but the fundemenral issue is the underlying law.
It's Nov. 1st not Apr. 1st...
Full text (PDF) of the Amicus Brief is worth reading and not that long. Excerpts "The Eastern District has adopted certain procedural rules that benefit patent owners—particularly those with weak patents and no products—to the detriment of small innovators and those accused of infringement. These rules drive up costs to defendants and work to increase settlement pressure untethered to the merits of a particular claim for patent infringement." and "These rules, although facially neutral, give significant advantages to patent owners with minimal assets, dubious patents or infringement claims, or a goal of extracting undeserved settlements."
You can't play whack-a-mole with corruption you have to purge it all at once, which can't ever happen as long as those in charge are willfully complicit and just as corrupt.
You may notice that civil forfeiture promoters are always saying it's about not making crime pay. Yet civil forfeiture is only really used against the poor. Some rich executive is caught insider trading, even though the "authorities" KNOW his fortune is the direct result of illegal activity, he's given a little fine to pay, slapped on the wrist and told not to get caught again. Some guy with $200 in his wallet when stopped by the police gets that cash stolen from him at the point of a gun under "suspicion" that it MIGHT be proceeds from illegal activity.
It's the same thing in east Texas. The "authorities" KNOW there is something suspicious going on there, but turn a blind eye because judges have the same kind of "good ole boy" blue wall of silence that crooked cops do.
The general quality of Slashdot editing has gone right over the cliff since it was announced that the site was once again for sale.
I don't think that this is a coincidence.
It's called Driving Down The Value Of A Brand, prior to a Dark Horse bid.
I personally don't think that Slashdot, including any applicable Intellectual Property, is worth much more than ~$40K right now.
So that's my Bid. As if...
I would be a Benign Dictator. Timmy has to stop sniffing glue and fondling his Guns. Samzenpus needs some Remedial English. And no, Roblimo, nobody gives a damn about your crappy Videos. You're 63 now; time to act your age.
Slashdot would host their own Ads, and only Good ones, under my Dictatorship. I shall attempt to lose no more than maybe $10K a year, out of pocket, pretty much indefinitely.
That is until I got tired of the whole thing, or Timothy creates an "accident" while demonstrating to me a 3D printed Pumpkin Cannon.
Judge Davis retired... No one is hearing patent cases anymore in the Eastern District of Texas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
It doesn't really matter that it was shut down--what matters is that it demonstrates the problem with forum-shopping, which the EFF is trying to prevent.
This is further complicated by the fact that The Federal Circuit *can't* overturn its own earlier decisions easily. The three-judge panel on a particular case has to respect the precedents set by an earlier case. So they may be able to weaken or strengthen a case, but they can't really overturn it. (Otherwise the law would depend entirely on which judges you happen to get.)
I'd buy it for $40,000. I'd fire the whole lot of them and let the community run it up to and including which ads are acceptable. They don't get anything for running it. Once the purchase price is paid off and once the interest that I'd charge (say, 10% total - including any additional fees until it makes a profit) then the community can decide which non-profit gets any additional monies - after an emergency fund is setup and fully funded.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Do you even have 40,000? Don't you live in you mothers basement?
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
This is awesome! Seriously, thanks. I've never had a stalker before. It makes me feel all warm and cozy, like I've done something meaningful.
Anyhow, yes, yes I do have that and no, my mother's dead. If I were to purchase such a thing then I'd even make sure you were still allowed to participate. Even if, for no other reason, it was because of the warm gushy feeling of having a stalker. I don't know why people would complain about them. You're pretty powerless and just tell me that I've managed to do something so meaningful as to piss someone off enough to spend their life (portions of it, at least) on my behalf. Those minutes, hours, and emotions that you give me are mine to do with as I please. I'm not usually one to lord power over another but this is awesome!
"So long and thanks for all the fish."