the biggest mistake Microsoft made was to decide that patents would be an effective defence against new competitors because that stops you from really innovating yourself

The whole patent system is a sham, unfortunately. Patents were invented to encourage inventors to publish their trade secrets, because society would benefit from the disclosure. But we now allow patents on things you could never keep secret in the first place, like software and business methods and medicines. That's insanity. Innovation happens because people solve problems, not because they might get a monopoly on it.

Pursuant to Section 501(b) of the 1976 Copyright Act... only the legal or beneficial owner of an exclusive right under copyright law is entitled, or has standing, to sue for infringement. Silvers v. Sony Pictures Entm't Inc.... In so holding, the Ninth Circuit followed the Second Circuit’s decision in Eden Toys, Inc. v. Florelee Undergarment Co.,... superseded by rule and statute on other grounds.... Section 106 of the Act defines and limits the exclusive rights under copyright law.... While these exclusive rights may be transferred and owned separately, the assignment of a bare right to sue is ineffectual because it is not one of the exclusive rights.... Since the right to sue is not one of the exclusive rights, transfer solely of the right to sue does not confer standing on the assignee.... One can only obtain a right to sue on a copyright if the party also obtains one of the exclusive rights in the copyright... Further, to obtain a right to sue for past infringement, that right must be expressly stated in the assignment.

This conclusion is flagrantly false—to the point that the claim is disingenuous, if not outright deceitful.

The companies’ current attempt to reinterpret the plain language of their agreement changes nothing. In reality, Righthaven actually left the transaction with nothing more than a fabrication...

Righthaven argues that Section 15.1 of the SAA gives the Court authority to correct any provision of the SAA that is deemed void or unenforceable to approximate the manifest intent of the parties. The problem is that this argument requires a provision of the SAA to be void or unenforceable. However, Righthaven’s problem is not that any provision of the SAA is void or unenforceable but that the SAA simply does not grant Righthaven any of the exclusive rights defined in Section 106 of the Act required for standing. Therefore, the SAA is not void or unenforceable, it merely prevents Righthaven from obtaining standing to sue from the Assignment. Accordingly, the Court need not and shall not amend or reinterpret the SAA to suit Righthaven’s current desires...

Here, Righthaven does not ask the Court to recognize an oral transfer with a late made written memorandum of the deal, but to fundamentally rewrite the agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media to grant Righthaven rights that it never actually received...

Finally, Righthaven contends that multiple courts within this district have already determined that Righthaven has standing to bring claims for past infringement under the Silver standard based on the plain language of the copyright assignment. At best, this argument is disingenuous. As the undersigned issued one of the orders Righthaven cites for this argument, the undersigned is well aware that Righthaven led the district judges of this district to believe that it was the true owner of the copyright in the relevant news articles. Righthaven did not disclose the true nature of the transaction by disclosing the SAA or Stephens Media’s pecuniary interests. As the SAA makes abundantly clear, Stephens Media retained the exclusive rights, never actually transferring them to Righthaven regardless of Righthaven’s and Stephens Media’s current contentions. Further, Righthaven also failed to disclose Stephens Media in its certificates of interested parties, despite Stephens Media’s right to proceeds from these lawsuits...

As shown in the preceding pages, the Court believes that Righthaven has made multiple inaccurate and likely dishonest statements to the Court. Here, however, the Court will only focus on the most factually brazen: Righthaven’s failure to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in Righthaven’s Certificate of Interested Parties. (Dkt. #5.) Rule 7.1-1 of the Local Rules of Practice for the District of Nevada requires parties to disclose “all persons, associations of persons, firms, partnerships or corporations (including parent corporations) which have a direct, pecuniary interest in the outcome of the case.” This Local Rule requires greater disclosure than Federal Rule 7.1, which only requires non-governmental corporate parties to disclose parent corporations or corporations owning more than 10% of the party’s stock. Frankly, if receiving 50% of litigation proceeds minus costs (Dkt. #79, SAA Section 5) does not create a pecuniary interest under Local Rule 7.1-1, the Court isn’t sure what would.

Making this failure more egregious, not only did Righthaven fail to identify Stephens Media as an interested party in this suit, the Court believes that Righthaven failed to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in any of its approximately 200 cases filed in this District. Accordingly, the Court orders Righthaven to show cause, in writing, no later than two (2) weeks from the date of this order, why it should not be sanctioned for this flagrant misrepresentation to the Court.