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Friday Miscellany, 2/15/08

By Troll Tracker

Here are seven random patent tidbits I have collected recently, thanks in large part to emailed tips.

1) There have already been as many patent lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of Texas in February than in all of January there. A busy month, indeed.

2) When Acacia (a California corporation) sued Apple (a California corporation) for the second time recently in the Southern District of Illinois, I asked out loud in one of my posts, why the SDIL? I think I may know the answer: because it's faster than Texas. Document Generation v. Allmeds got an 18-month time-to-trial already - June 2009. In Texas, that case would have been slated for trial probably six months later than that, at least. What remains to be seen is if it's a district that will transfer cases out, like WDWI.

3) I have heard from a couple of commenters on the blog plus a few emails that the Sorensen Research & Development patent expired on February 5, 2008, so this was the last gasp for filing infringement suits. At least two of the defendants have filed for re-exam at the USPTO. Most actions are being stayed pending re-exam.

4) In the Scott Harris/Illinois Computer Research/James Parker/Ray Niro v. Google/Fish & Richardson case in Chicago, things are starting to heat up again. Fish & Richardson has filed a motion for leave to file an amended complaint, adding six new defendants other than Scott Harris. They claim that each of the defendants has an interest in the outcome of the lawsuits involving Illinois Computer Research's patent bought from Scott Harris. Unfortunately, the proposed amended complaint was filed under seal. According to paragraph 6 of the complaint, each of the new entities "appears to be closely connected to and represented by the same law firm representing Mr. Harris and ICR, namely Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro." Of course, the best things in life are always in the footnotes. And here is footnote 2:

In moving to amend its Counterclaim and Third-Party Complaint, Fish & Richardson is obligated to advise the Court that this may not be the last proposed amendment to add parties that Fish & Richardson will file. Fish & Richardson currently believes that it has an adequate factual and legal basis to add the Niro firm as a party defendant to this lawsuit, based upon claims of aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary and contractual duty. Many of the facts upon which those claims may be based are set forth in the proposed Amended Counterclaim and Third-Party Amended Complaint.
Recognizing the consequences and gravity of naming a professional law firm as a party to a lawsuit, however, particularly in a case in which they are counsel of record, at this time Fish & Richardson has not added the Niro firm as a party in its proposed Amended Counterclaim and Third-Party Complaint. Instead, before Fish & Richardson would ask for leave to do so, it would seek to complete at least the expedited discovery it requested of Mr. Harris in November 2007, and which remains outstanding, and to depose Mr. Harris and conduct a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition on issues relating to the Niro firm?s activities. Given the time that will be required to complete that discovery and other outstanding issues, Fish & Richardson may later request the Court to extend the deadline for adding parties from March 31, 2008, to a date that allows the completion of at least the outstanding expedited discovery and the depositions identified above.

Joe Mullin, on his blog, has a L'Affaire Harris Timeline.

5) And now for something completely different: the Top Ten Search Terms of the Week to reach this website:

1. Saffran or Boston Scientific
2. Rembrandt
3. Scott Harris
4. IPcom Nokia
5. Erich Spangenberg
6. Minerva
7. Eric Albritton
8. Antor Media
9. Global Patent Holdings
10t. Wiav/Choongsoo Park
10t. Alexsam
10t. Altitude Capital
10t. Courtney Sherrer (why so many????)
23. When can you see Gemini constellation?
45. Who is Troll Tracker?

6) Traffic Information, LLC pulled an Antor Media (or is it a Fulbright?) last month. First it sued just 3 defendants; then in an amended complaint filed just after the original complaint, it added 9 more defendants, to make 12 total. In my monthly totals, I had only counted the first three defendants. I have now corrected the statistics on the original page, which you can see here. If anyone catches on to any other cases with amended complaints adding other defendants, feel free to clue me in.

7) Finally, in the Global Patent Holdings v. ADT case in Florida, there has been a motion to stay pending reexam filed 2/14 by HearUSA. It will be interesting to see how that develops. Do South Florida judges typically grant stays pending reexam?

TT

Full post as published by Patent Troll Tracker on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).