Negotiating Through Lawsuit Continues: EMI Drops Lawsuit, Signs Deal With Grooveshark

from the all-in-the-negotiation dept

We've noticed a troubling trend in how legitimate online music services are being pressured into deals with the major record labels. The labels begin the negotiations on licenses... and then sue the company. That, of course, makes life difficult for the startup, which is then pressured to offer even better (read: ridiculously onerous) terms to the labels. We've seen it happen over and over again, and saw it happening when EMI sued Grooveshark this past summer. And, of course, a few months later, the lawsuit is dropped and a licensing deal has been reached, though you can bet the terms are not quite what Grooveshark originally intended. That's what happens when part of the "negotiation" involves a lawsuit.

8 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Dear Google: We're Suing You For Patent Infringement... But Not In A Litigious Way

from the it's-just-our-way-of-saying-hi dept

Eric Goldman has an amusing patent lawsuit filed against Google for alleged violations of two patents by Google Reader. The two patents (one and two) have to do with information "coordination and retrieval" with one of them dating back to the late 80s. However, what's more amusing is what's said in the filing. As Goldman notes, this is a rare case where the lawsuit is being file pro se (without an outside lawyer)... and it shows.

Specifically, the filing suggests that the inventor really, really doesn't want to file a patent infringement lawsuit, and is really hoping that Google doesn't think it's litigious or get upset about it. Instead, the inventor claims that legal precedence forced him to file the lawsuit rather than negotiate. What legal precedent? One that would have allowed Google to file for declaratory judgment in a more favorable court. The inventor was afraid that if he kept talking to Google, they would do so, and that would be bad. He had contacted Google, via an unsolicited email, which Google responded to saying they weren't interested. Following that, he decided the only thing to keep the negotiation ongoing would be to file a lawsuit:

Further, as Priest & Morris, in good faith, only wish that the invention be used to its fullest potential, and have a strong wish that precious court and corporate resources be conserved, the plaintiffs prefer reaching this fair settlement through friendly appreciation and negotiation. In any event, we encourage defendant to not view this complaint as 'litigious behavior' and to view it in respective good faith and action.

As Goldman notes, it's pretty difficult not to view filing a lawsuit as litigious behavior because, well, it is litigious behavior.

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..