- Cops in London borough “remove valuables from unlocked cars to teach the owners about safety” [UPI, Sullum/Reason “Hit and Run”, Coyote]
- “Trial starts for PI lawyer accused of paying bribes (to Texas insurance managers) for settlement” [ABA Journal]
- Tort reform in Oklahoma takes effect Nov. 1, so law firm advises getting those lawsuits filed quickly [The Oklahoman]
- Patent assembler Intellectual Ventures says it’s averse to suing. Its close partners, on the other hand… [Recorder, earlier]
- Bill to assert U.S. control of waters whether “navigable” or not is major federal power grab [Kay Hutchison and Nolan Ryan, Dallas News]
- California high court rules in Taster’s Choice photo-permission case [Lowering the Bar, WSJ Law Blog, earlier]
- Civil libertarians, secularists protest as Ireland criminalizes blasphemy [Volokh, Irish Times (Dawkins), MWW and more]
- He knows about big paychecks: “Obama’s ‘Pay Czar’ Made $5.76M Last Year as a Law Firm Partner” [ABA Journal]
Posts Tagged ‘patent trolls’
“Patent reformer becomes troll, sues defunct OSS company”
And did a small defendant wind up being added to the list of those sued in an intellectual-property suit just in order to secure venue in the plaintiff-beloved Eastern District of Texas? [Ars Technica]
That’s Mr. Troll to you
A former partner at IP law firm Fish and Richardson who went into the invention business is “not so inventive, foes say”. [Joe Mullin, IP Law and Business, via Alison Frankel, AmLaw Daily] Related here and here (sixth item).
July 19 roundup
- Federal court rules “shy bladder syndrome” an ADA-protected disability [World of Work via Hyman]
- “Goldman Sachs Backs Down in Long Legal Battle With Blogger” [American Lawyer, WSJ Law Blog, Coleman, earlier]
- San Diego: unforeseen consequences of “anti-blight” lender regulation [Outside the Box]
- 1,000 lose jobs as environmental litigation halts Northern California refinery project [Wood, ShopFloor, update]
- City of Detroit lawyers on ethical hot seat after former mayor’s texting coverup scandal [ABA Journal, earlier]
- What happens when IP law firms breed homegrown patent trolls? [Ron Coleman]
- “It’s kind of like the practice of law, except that the clients are more likely to leave happy.” [Glenn Reynolds being naughty on Instapundit]
- U.K.: Owner of copyright to John Cage’s avant-garde “four minutes and thirty-three seconds of silence” work sues later impresario whose album track includes one minute of silence [seven years ago on Overlawyered; New Yorker treatment]
Big firms as patent trolls
Lawyer-driven entities with no manufacturing side are not the only ones making exorbitant demands for the use of marginal patents, critics charge (via). Related: Encyclopedia Britannica versus GPS systems.
A non-troll patent lawsuit in E.D. Tex.
Both sides actually manufacture products and everything.
May 16 roundup
- At “Hit and Run”, Damon Root deems a certain website “indispensable” [Reason; accolades file]
- Montgomery Blair Sibley, colorful lawyer for the “D.C. Madam” and a figure much covered on this site, has new book out [Doyle/McClatchy]
- Although Indian tribal litigators attacked it as “disparaging”, the Washington Redskins football team can keep its trademark, for now at least. “My ancestors were both Vikings and Cowboys. Do I have a course of action?” [Volokh comments]
- “Is Patent Infringement Litigation Up or Down?” [Frankel, The American Lawyer]
- Maryland high court dismisses autism-mercury lawsuit [Seidel, Krauss @ Point of Law]
- Chrysler dealers are lawyering up against the prospect of being cast off [WSJ Law Blog]
- “Should doctors who follow evidence-based guidelines be offered liability protection?” [KevinMD]
- Obama proposes $1.25 billion to settle black farmers’ long-running bias claims against the U.S. Department of Agriculture [AP/Yahoo]
March 23 roundup
- Probate court in Connecticut: bad enough when they hold you improperly in conservatorship, but worse when they bill you for the favor [Hartford Courant]
- Does “Patent Troll” in World of Warcraft count as a character type or a monster type? [Broken Toys]
- 102-year-old Italian woman wins decade-long legal dispute, but is told appeal could take 10 years more [Telegraph]
- “This Cartoon Could Be Illegal, If Two Iowa Legislators Have Their Way” [Eugene Volokh]
- David Giacalone, nonpareil commentator on attorneys’ fee ethics (and haiku), has decided to end his blog f/k/a. He signs off with a four-part series on lawyer billing and fairness to consumers/clients: parts one, two, three, four, plus a final “Understanding and Reducing Attorney Fees“. He’s keeping the site as archives, though, and let’s hope that as such it goes on shedding its light for as long as there are lawyers and vulnerable clients. More: Scott Greenfield.
- Even they can’t manage to comply? Politically active union SEIU faces unfair labor practice charges from its own employees [WaPo]
- Judge in Austin awards $3 million from couple’s estate to their divorce lawyers [Austin American-Statesman]
- “Keywords With Highest Cost Per Click”, lawyers and financial services dominate [SpyFu]
Patent trolls as a tax on innovation
The well-known venture capitalist Fred Wilson has his say. And Red Hat wants to enlist the public’s help in stopping the country’s allegedly most litigious patent troll by documenting prior art “on a user interface that has multiple workspaces. Hard to say just what they mean (which is often a problem in software patents), but it sounds a lot like functionality that pretty much all programmers and consumers use”.
February 12 roundup
- Driving through town of Tenaha, Texas? Might be better to get accosted by the robbers and not the cops [San Antonio Express-News via Balko, Hit and Run]
- Location-tracking Google Latitude application could pose liability problems for unwary employers [PoL]
- EMTALA law obliges hospital ERs to treat many patients. OK, so how about ELRALA next, for lawyers? [White Coat Rants]
- New Jersey judge dismisses defamation suit by three women whose picture appeared in book “Hot Chicks with D-Bags” [Smoking Gun, earlier here and, relatedly, here] More: Taranto, WSJ “Best of the Web”, scroll.
- Myrhvold, often assailed as patent troll, sponsors quote/unquote neutral Stanford study of patent litigation [MarketWatch]
- Some thoughts on much-publicized tussle between Associated Press and Shepard Fairey over Obamacon photo [Plagiarism Today]
- Creative uses of immigration law: get that little homewrecker deported [Obscure Store]
- More than a few real estate lawyers were “hip-deep in mortgage fraud”. Will they tiptoe away? [Scott Greenfield]
- Roundup on the awful Employee Free Choice Act [PoL]