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EFF Beats 'Stupid' Patent Troll In Court (courthousenews.com)
An Australian court can't make a California advocacy group take down a web page, a U.S. federal judge just ruled on Friday. Even if that web page calls a company's patents "stupid." Courthouse News reports:
San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation sued Global Equity Management, or GEMSA, in April, claiming the Australian firm exploited its home country's weaker free speech protections to secure an unconstitutional injunction against EFF. Kurt Opsahl, EFF's deputy executive director and general counsel, hailed the ruling as a victory for free speech. "We knew all along the speech was protected by the First Amendment," Opsahl said in a phone interview Friday. "We were pleased to see the court agree." Opsahl said the ruling sends a strong message EFF and other speakers can weigh in on important topics, like patent reform, without fear of being muzzled by foreign court orders.
The dispute stems from an article EFF published in June 2016, featuring GEMSA in its "Stupid Patent of the Month" series. The GEMSA patent is for a "virtual cabinet" to store data. In the article, EFF staff attorney Daniel Nazer called GEMSA a "classic patent troll" that uses its patent on graphic representations of data storage to sue "just about anyone who runs a website." The article also says GEMSA "appears to have no business other than patent litigation."
The judge granted EFF a default judgment, saying the Australian court's injunction was not only unenforceable in the United States but also "repugnant" to the U. S. Constitution.
The dispute stems from an article EFF published in June 2016, featuring GEMSA in its "Stupid Patent of the Month" series. The GEMSA patent is for a "virtual cabinet" to store data. In the article, EFF staff attorney Daniel Nazer called GEMSA a "classic patent troll" that uses its patent on graphic representations of data storage to sue "just about anyone who runs a website." The article also says GEMSA "appears to have no business other than patent litigation."
The judge granted EFF a default judgment, saying the Australian court's injunction was not only unenforceable in the United States but also "repugnant" to the U. S. Constitution.
if the outcome would have been the same had the firm in question been American rather than Australian. I have the impression that US courts are much more likely to condemn such overreaches when they are foreign than when they are domestic.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
There needs to be much more of that. Lawsuits like this shouldnâ(TM)t be brought and the way to discourage them is to take away the milk.
Corporatism != Free Market
GEMSA is currently trying to get a patent on stupidity to protect itself.
There may be consequences because of that..
Only in Australia...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
In this case, South Australian defamation law.
Australia's justice system is almost as adversarial as America's, and the EFF did not turn up to court to defend itself. As such, the argument that any order was unenforceable was never presented to the court. GEMSA probably only had to show that the EFF publishes in Australia by virtue of the fact that their web site is visible in Australia.
This may seem like affrontery on behalf of the court, but the fact is they only considered one side of the argument.
Just in case it isn't clear, I think the EFF did the right thing by fighting this in a US court and not an Australian court. I'm merely pointing out that this sort of ruling is inevitable if one party doesn't defend itself, and it's not necessarily the court's fault.
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US could follow the same approach of this ruling, and stop issuing fines for businesses that broke US law outside of US.
Me court. Me stupid. Me thinks TOR is son of Odan. Me thinks IP numbers don't exist. Me rulez!
"Trump!!", the new Godwin.
Don't look so smug. U s of A did the same thing with Kim Dotcom.
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