MPAA Tries Out Its New 'Up Is Down, Day Is Night' Strategy

Silicon Valley Patent Attorneys Register Their Own Patents; Sue Google, Microsoft, Yahoo And Others

from the more-lucrative dept

Thu, Dec 4th 2008 9:04am — Mike Masnick

A few months ago, we pointed to Joe Mullin's excellent article detailing how various patent attorneys were finding a lucrative side business in registering or buying their own patents and suing companies themselves. It's just that much more lucrative. Mullin is back, describing two Silicon Valley patent attorneys, Dominic Kotab and Kevin Zilka, who have been registering or buying a bunch of patents, and have been quite active in both setting up multiple shell companies, and suing many different defendants. And, despite the fact that they're both based in San Jose, right down the street from many of the firms they've sued, all of the lawsuits are being filed in Texas, of course. This includes a lawsuit against Adobe, whose headquarters are a mere four blocks from the offices of Kotab and Zilka. Adobe asked for the case to be transferred to California... and the request was rejected.

They've sued pretty much all of the big name tech companies, including Microsoft (five different times, on five different patents), Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Nokia, Motorola, Palm, AT&T, AOL and many, many others. The most recent is a lawsuit against Google for apparently violating this patent, which the lawyers claim Google is violating with its new Chrome browser.

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: dominic kotab, kevin zilka, patent attorneys, patents
Companies: google, microsoft, yahoo

20 Comments

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

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

vrobca, 4 Dec 2008 @ 9:44am

Time Relativity
I'm not American, but in my county as well people are continuously finding loop holes or pretty much very dirty ways to make easy, steamy piles of cash. Is it only me that feels like most of the gov's legislation, regardless of the area it addresses, was written in days when people, overall , had a higher sense of morale and human decency ? Old laws against new situations, maybe its time a generation like mine ( gen X ) starts thinking about a new set of constitutional heroes that provide an onramp off this cobble stone road we've been treading on for so long.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 9:46am

Hang em
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Xanthir, FCD, 4 Dec 2008 @ 9:49am

Re: Time Relativity
I'm not American, but in my county as well people are continuously finding loop holes or pretty much very dirty ways to make easy, steamy piles of cash. Is it only me that feels like most of the gov's legislation, regardless of the area it addresses, was written in days when people, overall , had a higher sense of morale and human decency ? Old laws against new situations, maybe its time a generation like mine ( gen X ) starts thinking about a new set of constitutional heroes that provide an onramp off this cobble stone road we've been treading on for so long.

No, and especially not in these circumstances. People have *always* been assholes. One thing that's changed is the ease with which people can magnify their assholeishness, though, as technology allows faster travel and communication.

Plus, patent law is just five kinds of fucked up.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 9:49am

The silver lining
The only good I can see in this is that situations like this really highlight what is wrong with our current patent system. The courts, USPO, and even some members are starting to see the problems, and these types of activities are only going to highlight the problems and keep them in the media.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I patented the intertubes in 1937!!!, 4 Dec 2008 @ 9:58am

Stop the madness
Patent lawsuits really are getting out of hand, as well as trademark suits. I never understood how most patents even got issued when they're so vague.

A guy in my community owns a small business and owns a few patents relating to the business. I think he makes small motor parts or some such. He was just telling me a few days ago he's being sued for patent infringement. So its not just large business that is affected by these cockroach lawyers. The courts need to start imposing heavy fines when its decided a case is frivolous.

Something definitely needs to be done when a huge company like Apple sues a school for using an apple logo, meanwhile Education + an Apple go back centuries. Or when lawyers do things like stated i this article. Disgusting times we live in.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 10:15am

I find it a little suprising that these "lawyers" haven't had a vehicular accident or a runaway baseball bat to the knees happen to them. One thinks that a certain level hiring thugs to change someones attitude would be much cheaper than paying off the cockroach or fighting it in court.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 10:16am

I wonder if they've patented my foot going up their ass yet...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
angry dude, 4 Dec 2008 @ 10:20am

Mikey's head is square
but his ass is triangular and he writes with it
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mike42 (profile), 4 Dec 2008 @ 10:25am

Ya know...
It seems like corporate executives that support software patents and the patent system in it's current state are NOT acting in the best interests of the corporations they work for or their shareholders. Time and again the large corporation gets the shakedown from some troll, and who pays for it? Not the executives, no. The shareholders take the hit for the executive's misconceptions. Even if the company wins, it's thousands wasted on court costs at a time when many companies are scrimping on office supplies.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Moderation, 4 Dec 2008 @ 10:27am

Patent abuse and Copyright abuse...
are two of the biggest problems the US faces... Not saying our economy isn't bad now, but it doesn't help when leeches suck the blood out of companies that are trying to make due... and force them to either not hire, or lay off workers to pay for moronic law suits like this...

This on top of the fact that these practices are killing innovation... unless you consider finding ways to screw the system innovative... Why try going into business or selling a new product, or developing the next great idea, when some asshole lawyer will just take it all from you... or end up being your boss...

Sickening... what can be done to shed more light on this problem? Why the HELLL would Adobe's motion to transfer this case be rejected!? The judge that rejected this request needs to be investigated!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Evil Mike, 4 Dec 2008 @ 10:28am

Re:
Sadly, there aren't enough hired thugs to go around. In fact, the few competent hire-able thugs are nearing retirement age, and cannot afford to retire. Please donate to your local Hire an International Thug Union (HIT-U) today!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Monarch, 4 Dec 2008 @ 10:49am

Re:
All the Thugs for hire decided it was more lucrative to get law degrees and MBA's. Come on, make more money playing the numbers in corporate finance and get lesser sentences when busted. Plus it's more profitable to break a pocket book than a knee!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
astontechno, 4 Dec 2008 @ 11:48am

to sue or not to sue
only if a lawsuit of this nature is victorious will

the lawsuit actually be explained to the layman
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Twinrova, 4 Dec 2008 @ 12:08pm

I'm confused.
How is it possible a patent is granted for a process that's been out for years?

Shouldn't this be illegal for these idiots to sue companies over post-process patents?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 12:29pm

Why Texas?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 12:32pm

Re:
Never mind, I found it here:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071005/020748.shtml
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 12:32pm

Re:
Never mind, I found it here:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071005/020748.shtml
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jan, 4 Dec 2008 @ 3:06pm

how come?
How is that even possible that they are allowed to make money of patents? Don't you have any law against 'conflict of interest' in America?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Dec 2008 @ 7:26pm

Re: Mikey's head is square
That's so incoherent Angry Dude, that it makes me wonder what you write with?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 6 Dec 2008 @ 12:04am

Re: angry dud
Nurse! He's over here.
[ link to this | view in thread ]