Near the end of July, CustomPlay sued Apple and Amazon. CustomPlay is owned by Max Abecassis, who also owns Nissim Corp. (Nissim has a long history of involvement with the DVD standard and nearly as long of a history of forcing companies to license its DVD patents; this is hardly Abecassis’ first go at patent…
Blog Posts
The Cost Of Bad Patents: It’s Not Just The Lawsuit
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
The cost of bad patents is not just the cost of lawsuits. This may seem obvious, but apparently it isn’t. I’ve recently noticed a trend from the anti-reform lobby: someone testifies in front of Congress about patent reform, they complain that “they’ve only been sued once or twice, why are they being asked to…
The PTO’s § 101 Summary Report
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
One of the most important developments over the past few years is the Supreme Court’s decision in Alice v. CLS Bank – a decision that articulated a distinction between patent-eligible inventions, and patent-ineligible abstract ideas. The Alice decision has enabled many companies, including small businesses, to defend themselves from baseless patent infringement lawsuits based on…
A Blackbird in Many Forms
by Josh Landau • • 4 Comments
You might recall a few months ago I wrote about Blackbird Technologies, an NPE with a novel approach to patent litigation. Blackbird is a company owned by lawyers. It buys patents from patent owners, apparently with a share of any litigation wins flowing back to the owner. The lawyers who own Blackbird also litigate the…
Saying Doesn’t Make It So—Why You Still Shouldn’t Listen To Qualcomm
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
Last week, CCIA filed a statement on the public interest in Qualcomm v. Apple at the International Trade Commission (ITC), Qualcomm’s newest attempt to use patent law to reinforce their monopoly power over the baseband processor market. In a response filed yesterday, Qualcomm accused CCIA of partaking in a “coordinated effort aimed at misdirecting the…
If Qualcomm Wins At The ITC, We All Lose
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
This afternoon, CCIA filed comments on the public interest in the Qualcomm v. Apple case pending at the International Trade Commission (ITC). Qualcomm sued Apple in the ITC as part of the large dispute between the two companies. (The dispute continues to grow, having recently added a case in Germany and suits and counter-suits between…
Understanding The Questions Asked At The “Bad Patents” Hearing
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
The recent House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the Impact of Bad Patents on American Businesses addressed many of the points I made last week. But it also highlighted a few issues where there’s some dispute or simply a lack of understanding. In particular, I think that the hearing’s focus on the (1) “broadest reasonable interpretation”…
Comments to the USPTO on AIA Trial Procedures
by Josh Landau • • 1 Comment
On July 6, the Computer and Communications Industry Association submitted comments on America Invents Act (AIA) trial procedures in response to the PTO’s ongoing request for such feedback, most recently at the PTAB Judicial Conference in June. Our comments, briefly summarized, are that: The inter partes review (IPR) procedure has been successful in providing an…
Bad Patents, Bad Results
by Josh Landau • • 4 Comments
Tomorrow morning, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet is holding a hearing on “The Impact of Bad Patents on American Businesses.” The impact of bad patents is a topic worth taking some time to examine, because it isn’t just about the direct impact from abusive troll litigation—bad patents…
The “Doubtful Validity” Type Of Case
by Josh Landau • • 2 Comments
“Death squads.” “Hanging judge[s].” A “reign of terror.” “Patent killing fields.” Even if we set aside the questionable taste shown in analogizing the review of patents to genocide, there’s some extremely overwrought rhetoric out there being used to describe the inter partes review (IPR) process. The rhetoric is based on a perception that the Patent…