Howrey Tells Clients It's Getting Off the Troll Road
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| The debate over patent trolls is dividing the IP bar.
|
| In one of the most overt examples of choosing sides, litigation firm Howrey
| provocatively proclaims in a new brochure for clients that it absolutely
| won't represent trolls -- and criticizes firms that do.
|
| "As a firm policy, Howrey does not litigate for 'patent trolls,'" the page
| blares underneath a picture of a crossed-out cartoon troll. "Why support
| firms that are helping perpetuate this scourge on legitimate businesses
| everywhere?"
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http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1205232262826
Troll Tracker Sued For Defamatation By Patent Attorneys In East Texas
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| Just this morning we were lamenting the fact that the formerly anonymous
| Patent Troll Tracker had shut down his blog, but now we know why. It appears
| that two patent attorneys in East Texas have sued him and Cisco for
| defamation. One of the attorneys happens to also be the son of the judge who
| helped make Marshall, Texas famous as a favorite for patent holders. The
| details on the case suggest that this lawsuit may have been the reason that
| Rick Frenkel outed himself, as it was actually filed back in November and
| used as a way to unmask the Troll Tracker.
`----
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080312/020814510.shtml
Activision's "Guitar Hero" violates patent: Gibson
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| Gibson said the games, in which players press buttons on a guitar-shaped
| controller in time with notes on a TV screen, violates a 1999 patent for
| technology to simulate a musical performance.
`----
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1222156920080312
The system is imploding!
Related:
Ending software patents: Has the time come?
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| The End Software Patents Web site, here, highlights a long list of diverse
| businesses that have been sued for allegedly infringing software patents,
| including the Green Bay Packers, OfficeMax, Caterpillar, Kraft Foods , ADT
| Security Services, AutoNation, Wal-Mart , Walgreen , Barnes & Noble, Circuit
| City Stores , Ford Motor , E I du Pont de Nemours and Co. , and so on. In
| most cases, the companies have been sued because of certain basic, routine
| functions performed on their Web sites — the way images are displayed, the
| way data is gathered or transmitted — which are said to infringe software
| patents.
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http://legalpad.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/02/28/ending-software-patents-has-the-time-come/?source=yahoo_quote
Here Comes Trouble: An Antidote to Software Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The $250 million Vonage burned through as a result of the patent lawsuit
| brought by Verizon et al provides yet another example of why patents for
| business processes implemented on computers (a.k.a. software patents) deserve
| to die. Verizon’s two successful “name translation” patents negate an open
| standard assembled by Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Vocaltec via the VoIP
| Forum during 1996. The threat of patent litigation cleared the landscape of
| independent VoIP companies the VoIP Forum sought to make possible.
`----
http://gigaom.com/2008/01/18/here-comes-trouble-an-antidote-to-software-patents/
Microsoft Wins in Supreme Court; AT&T Ruling Overturned
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| In a stunning 7-1 decision with extremely broad implications in
| the field of patents and patentability, the US Supreme Court has
| overturned a Federal Circuit ruling that was in favor of AT&T,
| and has apparently affirmed Microsoft's arguments that software
| coupled with the device on which the software is installed
| cannot be considered patentable.
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http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Wins_in_Supreme_Court_ATT_Ruling_Overturned/1177944397
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