Hodgepodge And Sundry Developments

Lots of doings in the patent arena last week.  I’m not a “weekly recap” kind of gal because I’m way too lazy other people do it so much better than me, but there are a lot of little things going on that I can’t drag out into a full blog post, even as verbose as I am, so I figured I’d just hit them all in one post and call it a hodgepodge.  Plus, I get to use the word hodgepodge and delight the over-70 crowd so win-win!

• GO NEWEGG.  These guys are already in the Patent Troll Fighter Heroes gallery, and this just proves why.  They are all over the troll take-down M.O. and it’s awesome.  The supreme court said “No, thankyouverymuch” to Soverain, which means their no longer sovereign over the online shopping cart world.  Obviousness, thou art quite the slayer.  Lee Cheng is a National Treasure, to be sure.
• Next up, we’ve got PTAB (Patent Trial and Appeals Board) news. It seems IP Nav is not happy ever with Polly Patent Owner not getting her (ill-gotten) infringement award in due time because someone that she didn’t sue found prior art.  If your patent is as solid as you claim it is, then shouldn’t it hold up under any and all scrutiny?  That’s kind of how I look at this.
• The Scanner Dudes have completely jumped the shark and are now suing (are you ready for it?) The Government.  Wait, what?  Oh yes, yes they did.  And by “they” we mean Jay Mac Rust, who is behind the entire company and all of it’s 101 six-letter named subsidiaries.  This one actually deserves its own write up and it will get one as soon as I clear some other work off the desk.

Just one man. All those companies and it’s just one guy.

• From the “that’ll learn ya, dern ya!” files we have Nintendo who, in addition to sucking more money from me than I care to admit and turning my kids into consummate gamers, has won the ultimate victory over a troll in that they bought it’s patent portfolio after squashing them in court.  Well, uh, played, Nintendo.  They got the patents at a fire sale, held because Nintendo was awarded legal fees to be paid by IA LAbs only Shazaam!  IA Labs couldn’t pay.  Which is interesting because a judge decided, all on his/her own, to make the loser pay.  So, really, as an aside to this bullet point, do we need a new federal law mandating this?  If the judges can decide on a case-by-case basis to do this anyway, what’s all the huffing and puffing about it being an official law?  And besides which, this case illustrates how that really won’t work anyway because in the end, the loser didn’t so much pay as the winner.  At the auction.  To buy the trolls’ patents.

There you have it:  hodgepodge and sundry developments because that’s just how we roll.  And be “we” I mean “I”.  Hey, if Jac Mac Rust can pretend to be a lot of people, why can’t I?

IPTT

{Jay Mac Rust image via Ars Technica.}