These trials coming up in September 2014 are the direct result of the failure of all three branches of the Federal Government to prevent bad faith actors such as Personal Audio known as "Patent Trolls" from utilizing common sense Patent protections to extort money from defendants such as NBC or Adam Carolla.
Witness the recent disgraceful press release by Personal Audio as part of its Federally mandated settlement negotiations in these actions involving the Adam Carolla show.
Personal Audio willfully violated the confidentiality of the settlement negotiations and went public with an ludicrous accusation that Adam Carolla has refused to accept their dismissal of Personal Audio's lawsuit against him while imploring Carolla's fans to no longer donate to the Legal Defense Fund Carolla created to offset the costs of litigating with Personal Audio.
Personal Audio can drop their suit at any time. What they are actually attempting to stop with their ridiculous press release is Carolla's fundraising which has successfully made the name Personal Audio synonymous with the term Patent Troll and is damaging Personal Audio's much more lucrative cases against CBS, NBC and Fox.
The Patent Office under the supervision of the Executive Branch has been far too expansive in granting patents to entities such as Personal Audio that are vague and non-specific in what technologies they purportedly seek to protect.
In the case of Personal Audio, the "504" patent they seek to enforce against Carolla and The Networks is based on a 1996 patent involving the syndication of magazine articles over the internet that they applied for an update with the Patent Office in 2009 and after having that updated "sub-patent" granted in 2012 immediately began suing the networks and podcasters such as Carolla.
In concert with the shoddy examinations of the validity of such patents by the Patent Office, the Federal Courts such as in the Eastern District of Texas have been all to accommodating in allowing these Patent Trolls such as Personal Audio to file their actions and undertake trials thousands of miles away from their actual operations.
Adam Carolla and the Networks are based on the Coasts and Personal Audio is incorporated in the State of Vermont. However, all it took was for Personal Audio to take out a Post Office Box in Beaumont Texas to file for and obtain jurisdiction in Texas.
Thus all the defendants in this 504 patent action have been caught in the Patent Troll Speed Trap that operates as the Federal Courts of the Eastern District of Texas that harpoon defendants like giant tuna and drag them 2,000 miles from their respective home-bases to defend themselves against a Vermont company in Marshall, Texas.
Why? Because Federal Judges are appointed for life, answerable to no one and want these trials as a means of creating commerce for their courthouses and their localities that benefit from a steady stream of litigants staying in local hotels, eating in local restaurants and utilizing local business services.
The boom in Patent litigation in the Eastern District of Texas is staggering both in its volume and the enthusiastic manner that this Federal Jurisdiction maintains these actions for the Patent Trolls.
Witness the recent denial by the Federal Court of a motion to stay the Personal Audio case awaiting the outcome of a recently granted review of the validity of the 504 Patent by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Should this Board find the 504 patent to be un-neccessarily applied to the Networks and Carolla for their broadband media efforts; the result of any trial ruling in favor of Personal Audio would automatically be invalidated.
Thus the common sense result would be to simply stay the upcoming trials in September and wait for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to make their decision.
What harm could waiting for that decision be to Personal Audio in that they are a non practicing entity such that they are not being deprived of undertaking the use of their patent in the meantime?
However, their best pals in the Eastern District of Texas just ruled against this stay because like it or not they are actually in business with the trolls on these patent actions.
If the PTAB invalidates the patent, then the Courthouse in Marshall Texas is deprived of as many as 4 separate trials in this matter and we can't have that because who is going to eat all these cheese-fries???
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(untitled comment)
Even Hitler has abandoned Personal Audio...
A National Disgrace or Who is going to eat these Texas Cheese-Fries
Witness the recent disgraceful press release by Personal Audio as part of its Federally mandated settlement negotiations in these actions involving the Adam Carolla show.
Personal Audio willfully violated the confidentiality of the settlement negotiations and went public with an ludicrous accusation that Adam Carolla has refused to accept their dismissal of Personal Audio's lawsuit against him while imploring Carolla's fans to no longer donate to the Legal Defense Fund Carolla created to offset the costs of litigating with Personal Audio.
Personal Audio can drop their suit at any time. What they are actually attempting to stop with their ridiculous press release is Carolla's fundraising which has successfully made the name Personal Audio synonymous with the term Patent Troll and is damaging Personal Audio's much more lucrative cases against CBS, NBC and Fox.
The Patent Office under the supervision of the Executive Branch has been far too expansive in granting patents to entities such as Personal Audio that are vague and non-specific in what technologies they purportedly seek to protect.
In the case of Personal Audio, the "504" patent they seek to enforce against Carolla and The Networks is based on a 1996 patent involving the syndication of magazine articles over the internet that they applied for an update with the Patent Office in 2009 and after having that updated "sub-patent" granted in 2012 immediately began suing the networks and podcasters such as Carolla.
In concert with the shoddy examinations of the validity of such patents by the Patent Office, the Federal Courts such as in the Eastern District of Texas have been all to accommodating in allowing these Patent Trolls such as Personal Audio to file their actions and undertake trials thousands of miles away from their actual operations.
Adam Carolla and the Networks are based on the Coasts and Personal Audio is incorporated in the State of Vermont. However, all it took was for Personal Audio to take out a Post Office Box in Beaumont Texas to file for and obtain jurisdiction in Texas.
Thus all the defendants in this 504 patent action have been caught in the Patent Troll Speed Trap that operates as the Federal Courts of the Eastern District of Texas that harpoon defendants like giant tuna and drag them 2,000 miles from their respective home-bases to defend themselves against a Vermont company in Marshall, Texas.
Why? Because Federal Judges are appointed for life, answerable to no one and want these trials as a means of creating commerce for their courthouses and their localities that benefit from a steady stream of litigants staying in local hotels, eating in local restaurants and utilizing local business services.
The boom in Patent litigation in the Eastern District of Texas is staggering both in its volume and the enthusiastic manner that this Federal Jurisdiction maintains these actions for the Patent Trolls.
Witness the recent denial by the Federal Court of a motion to stay the Personal Audio case awaiting the outcome of a recently granted review of the validity of the 504 Patent by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Should this Board find the 504 patent to be un-neccessarily applied to the Networks and Carolla for their broadband media efforts; the result of any trial ruling in favor of Personal Audio would automatically be invalidated.
Thus the common sense result would be to simply stay the upcoming trials in September and wait for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to make their decision.
What harm could waiting for that decision be to Personal Audio in that they are a non practicing entity such that they are not being deprived of undertaking the use of their patent in the meantime?
However, their best pals in the Eastern District of Texas just ruled against this stay because like it or not they are actually in business with the trolls on these patent actions.
If the PTAB invalidates the patent, then the Courthouse in Marshall Texas is deprived of as many as 4 separate trials in this matter and we can't have that because who is going to eat all these cheese-fries???
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by makeitstop.
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