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Troll With 'Stupid Patent' Sues EFF. EFF Sues Them Back (arstechnica.com)
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued an Australian company that it previously dubbed as a 'classic patent troll' in a June 2016 blog post entitled: Stupid Patent of the Month: Storage Cabinets on a Computer." An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica:
Last year, that company, Global Equity Management (SA) Pty. Ltd. (GEMSA), managed to get an Australian court to order EFF to remove its post -- but EFF did not comply. In January 2017, Pasha Mehr, an attorney representing GEMSA, further demanded that the article be removed and that EFF pay $750,000. EFF still did not comply. The new lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday, asks that the American court declare the Australian ruling unenforceable in the U.S.
GEMSA's attorneys reportedly threatened to have the EFF's post de-indexed from search engine listings -- on the basis of the Australian court order -- so now the EFF "seeks a court order declaring the Australian injunction 'repugnant' to the U.S. Constitution and unenforceable in the United States."
The Register reports that GEMSA has already sued 37 companies, "including big-name tech companies Airbnb, Uber, Netflix, Spotify, and eBay. In each case, GEMSA accused the company's website design of somehow trampling on the GUI patent without permission." But things were different after the EFF's article, according to Courthouse News. "GEMSA said the article made it harder to enforce its patents in the United States, citing its legal opponents' 'reduced interest in pursuing pre-trial settlement negotiations.'"
GEMSA's attorneys reportedly threatened to have the EFF's post de-indexed from search engine listings -- on the basis of the Australian court order -- so now the EFF "seeks a court order declaring the Australian injunction 'repugnant' to the U.S. Constitution and unenforceable in the United States."
The Register reports that GEMSA has already sued 37 companies, "including big-name tech companies Airbnb, Uber, Netflix, Spotify, and eBay. In each case, GEMSA accused the company's website design of somehow trampling on the GUI patent without permission." But things were different after the EFF's article, according to Courthouse News. "GEMSA said the article made it harder to enforce its patents in the United States, citing its legal opponents' 'reduced interest in pursuing pre-trial settlement negotiations.'"
I have to love it, "Their article made it harder to enforce ridiculous patents"
He does realize most people's response will be GOOD !
Umm, no.
Have you actually read the SPEECH act?
Or even the very first sentence of the wikipedia article on it?
Right, and you do realise that the SPEECH act does not matter to the Australian judicial system, right? If its bounced out of the US, the EFF had better hope it never has any funds or assets in Australia, because they will be seized under contempt of court, and contempt of court rulings aren't covered by the SPEECH act even if the contempt is based on an original case which is, so any fines issued under contempt of court *can* be pursued in US courts against its US assets.
The SPEECH act is not a "get out of jail free card", and it does NOT solve the underlying issue - there is a valid court order issued in Australia, and any ruling by a San Francisco court doesn't invalidated it, it just limits the ability to collect under that specific ruling in the US. There are multiple ways around that if the EFF want to ignore the Australian court...
Yes, I've read the SPEECH act (been a few years tho).
> This month’s stupid patent, US Patent No. 6,690,400 (the ’400 patent), claims the idea of using “virtual cabinets” to graphically represent data storage and organization.
"Magic Desk" for the Commodore 64 (released in 1983) used virtual file cabinets.
So did GEOS applications, IIRC.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Well too fucking bad, because I'm reposting it instead. COME AT ME BRO!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
But the SF court case will establish a record that GEMSA will find more difficult to get delisted, even in Australia.
I don't think that it is libellous to report on the SF case. Assuming the EFF wins the case, it would be a factual statement to say (hypothetically) "a court in the USA agreed with the EFF that GEMSA's patent 6,690,400 is stupid".
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
It was a .......Kangaroo court?
I'm so ashamed but I just could not stop myself.
The educationally subnormal believe that there are two sides to every situation. We need fair representation of each side of the sides. Someone suggests that gravity makes things fall down and they demand that that the "up gravity party" have equal representation, never even thinking of that the sideways gravity party might be just as worth listening to. In the end however, gravity falls "down" because that's what down means. There is no second opinion we need to listen to.
If the patent is stupid then just say it's stupid. "Professionalism" be damned. Idiots be damned.
A US court would not issue a declaratory judgment that the patent is stupid. It might issue a declaratory judgment that the EFF has a right, protected by the First Amendment, to say that the patent is stupid, even though an Australian court ruled against the EFF by default.
Just put a hit on the guy. Faster and certainly cheaper.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Title seems to be perfectly accurate to me. This is a "non-practicing entity" -- a piece of legal jargon referring to what is known in the vernacular as a "patent troll". This troll is suing EFF because EFF called one of its patents "stupid" -- and in fact the title duly quotes the term "stupid patent". In logic this is called "reification" -- in essence talking about a statement without necessarily accepting or rejecting its content. You may agree with the statement "Alice called Bob a 'bastard'," without asserting that Bob is a bastard yourself.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The enemy's gate is down...
There's nothing wrong with holding a portfolio of patents and then licensing them.
As long as the entity can be (counter-)sued in such a way that a loss hurts those responsible for trolling, there's nothing wrong with this in principle.
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