JPG Patent Holder Goes For The Sympathy Vote

from the oh-boo-hoo dept

Fri, Feb 22nd 2008 8:56am — Mike Masnick

Back during the RIM-NTP patent battle, one of the sleazier moves pulled by NTP was to have the widow of the patent holder write a letter to Congress about what a "gross injustice" was being done to her in the case. It was purely an attempt to influence the case for sympathetic rather than legal reasons. There are plenty of folks out there who have bogus patents -- and there's no reason to grant them rewards just because they've had some personal hardships. However, it looks like Global Patent Holdings (GPH) is taking this strategy to a new level. GPH, if you don't recall, holds the extremely questionable JPEG patent that has basically been used to bully people that patent attorney Ray Niro doesn't like. The Troll Tracker notes some interesting language used in a recent filing against a resort in Boca Raton.

In the filing, the lawyers play up the fact that the inventors named on the patent made very little money in 2006 and have some health problems (actually, it discusses one inventor and the other inventor's widow). In fact, it gets worse than that. In another filing, GPH points out that the inventors are old and "feeble". Again, it's not clear what the personal, health and financial problems of the inventors has to do with the validity of the patent or the claims of infringement. It seems to be purely an attempt to gain sympathy. Also, as someone in the comments on the Troll Tracker site notes, why focus on 2006, rather than 2007? The suggestion is that given how aggressively GPH has pushed to license the patent since last year, perhaps their income was substantially higher in 2007. Elsewhere, though, GPH notes that it owns the patents entirely, meaning that who the inventors are is somewhat meaningless -- but why let that stop the company from pushing for sympathy.

Either way, the filing then goes even further in pushing for the sympathy vote, noting that the resort in question is owned by a private equity firm in New York that was somehow loosely involved in the subprime loan crisis. Again, this obviously has nothing to do with whether or not the company is infringing on a patent by putting a JPEG image on its site -- but is being used to make the company look like a big bad evil giant. So, now the case is positioned as big multi-billion dollar subprime-mess-contributing NY-based private equity firm against poor, weak, sick inventors.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: jpeg, jpg, patents, ray niro, sympathy
Companies: global patent holdings

8 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

All That I Have Mastered, 22 Feb 2008 @ 9:55am

I hope he dies and his widow gets cancer.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2008 @ 11:21am

Isn't the charity of the firm wonderful!
As a cynic - why does GPH not state THEIR income for the last few years and the amount that their lawyerS EARNED.

Presumable, they feel sorry for the poor inventors. So they
are going to give all the money to the inventors?
Sign oveR all the patent rights to the poor and infirm inventors?

Oh Yeh! Right!

Is all this money, if there
is an award, going to be given to the poor and infirm investors? I assume that the lawyers will also work 'pro bono' for these poor people.

I think that the difference between science and law is that
with law the lawyer tries to argue that the law should change "in this case'. With science, scientists and engineers work within the laws!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased), 22 Feb 2008 @ 11:21am

Expected
So patent attorneys took one from the scammers' playbook. Seems like a perfect marriage.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chronno S. Trigger, 22 Feb 2008 @ 11:29am

Re: Expected
But won't the copyright lawyers be mad at the patent lawyers for "stealing" ideas from scammers?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
erinol0, 22 Feb 2008 @ 12:39pm

Who is John Galt?
At times like these, it feels like Ayn Rand was right about society. They're actually suggesting that there should be a monetary award based upon feelings instead of facts.... Where's John Galt when you need him?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2008 @ 1:07pm

Re: Who is John Galt?
"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of production and trade"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Joe Smith, 22 Feb 2008 @ 2:43pm

ask the question
Now I would have thought that the obvious response for the Defendants is to ask the Plaintiffs lawyers ( in front of the judge) how much of any damage award would go to the inventors ( since the Plaintiff has put their circumstances in issue ) and to ask why the circumstances of the Defendant are relevant at all.

The resort to arguments ad homenem are a sure sign a lawyer knows the facts and the law are against him.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Feb 2008 @ 5:51pm

Sympathy for the Devil
"Please allow me to introduce myself
Im a man of wealth and taste
Ive been around for a long, long year
Stole many a mans soul and faith"

Rolling Stones - of course
[ link to this | view in thread ]