Do Google's Patent Lobbying Efforts Matter In Patent Infringement Suits Against The Company?
from the hard-to-see-why dept
Google, of course, is on the receiving end of numerous patent lawsuits (and the number seems to keep growing). In one, brought by Erich Spangenberg's Bright Response LLC (you may recall Spangenberg's name from the fact that he recently was told to pay $4 million for violating a settlement in one of his other patent lawsuits, where he promised not to sue the same companies over the same patents), the patent holder is demanding Google turn over all information concerning its lobbying efforts on patent reform. As Google notes in response, its lobbying efforts on patent reform have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not there's any infringement on automatic message interpretation and routing systems -- a patent, by the way, that the EFF has designated as one of the ten worst patents out there.This seems like a pure fishing expedition to (a) try to create more work for Google for no good reason and (b) have a well-known exploiter of the current patent system get access to what patent system reformers are talking about in DC. It has no bearing on the case one way or the other, and hopefully the judge agrees.
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: erich spangenberg, lobbying, patents
Companies: bright response, google
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Google Salt
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You seem to have this backwards - most Americans treat the judge's opinion as much more definitive than yours, you can disagree if you want but nobody cares !.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
While I'm almost certain I'm feeding a blog troll with this response, it would seem that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. People disagree with judges all the time - that's why there's a court system with an appeals process in place. And even beyond those directly involved with a case, public opinion can (and often does) disagree with a judge.
You are apparently of the opinion that if you don't happen to be a judge then no one should take your opinion on legal matters seriously, which is quite honestly idiotic.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]