Eolas' Convenient Move To Texas
from the oh-look-at-that... dept
Last week, we noted that Eolas had received a new patent, a continuation on its browser plug-in patent, and appears to be claiming that it applies to most forms of web embeds, and has sued a ton of big name companies. While most were big name websites (Google, Yahoo, eBay, etc) there were a few that were odd, including retailer J.C. Penney and IT services provider Perot Systems (in the process of being bought by Dell). Well, the ever resourceful Joe Mullin points out that, of course, these firms just so happen to be located in Texas, which helps Eolas come up with a reason why its lawsuit should be in Texas. Even more interesting? Eolas -- despite coming out of UC Berkeley, and basically being one guy who's now based in Chicago -- conveniently reincorporated in East Texas. Wonder why? Especially, with judges now transferring at least a few of the many East Texas patent trials to more convenient locations, East Texas lawyers are coming up with all sorts of neat tricks to convince judges to keep the lawsuits right there.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.
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Filed Under: east texas, patents
Companies: eolaa, j.c. penney, perot systems
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We're all thinking it...
Look, I love freedom as much, or more, as the next person, but tell me in a situation like this you wouldn't want some benevolent, reasonable, all powerful (helmeted?) authority to pick this Eolas scab off the American Judicial system and flick it into the ocean...
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Re: We're all thinking it...
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Re: Re: We're all thinking it...
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Why do the courts allow this?
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I can see this backfiring
All it's going to take is for one of these leeches to sue to wrong Texan company or a company tied into the wrong Texan company somehow, perhaps at that point the Texan judicial system will get a polite reminder that they should focus less on laws that allow legitimate business to be sued for no good reason.
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Eastern TX New Silicon Valley
Didn’t you know that East Texas is rapidly becoming the hottest area of the country for innovative start up companies? Inventors are flocking there for comradely, culture reasonable real estate prices and country living.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley has become dominated by Piracy Coalition members who have strangled the area’s inventive spirit. It is not the place for start up companies. The decline will be long and painful.
Eolas is a perfect example of what inventors do for society. It is a shame that they have to sue all these big companies. It doesn’t have to be this way, those companies could change their ways and start licensing rather than trying to steal.
Perhaps both you and Joe Mullin can explain why the two of you constantly root for those who are stealing billions of dollars from America’s inventors. Mullin’s work looks suspiciously like that of Rick Frenkel which raises the question of rather or not Rick Frenkel continues to work in this area.
Ronald J. Riley,
I am speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (810) 597-0194 / (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 8 pm EST.
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stop the shilling!!!
It's very simple. TX courts have a faster time to trial. Small entities can't sit around and pick daisies, or they go bankrupt. Sure, the big infringers would just as soon wait...until hell freezes over.
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