Patent Hoarder Caught Shuffling Patents Around To Sue Multiple Times
from the whoops dept
Last year, we noted the trend for various patent hoarding entities to set up a group of shell companies with which to sue companies. Part of the reason for doing so was to make it that much more difficult for the companies being sued to even know who they were fighting against. However, one big patent hoarding organization had another plan too… which just backfired. Plutus IP is a somewhat secretive patent holding company that has set up a bunch of shell companies all named after stars — and apparently it tried to pull a little trick by shuffling patents around among the shells.
You see, the company had sued Daimler Chrysler over patent infringement, and rather than fight it (as too often happens in these sorts of suits), Daimler felt it was cheaper to settle up. Of course, part of that $2.3 million settlement was an agreement that there wouldn’t be any more lawsuits over the patents in question. So what does Plutus do? It shuffles the patents among its various subsidiaries and sues DaimlerChrysler three more times. A court made quick work of the case, finding that Plutus had violated its settlement terms with DaimlerChrysler, and the company (run by Erich Spangenberg) may be on the hook for millions of dollars.
Filed Under: patents, shell companies
Companies: daimlerchrysler, plutus ip
Comments on “Patent Hoarder Caught Shuffling Patents Around To Sue Multiple Times”
HA
Ha ha suckas. Way to go and get greedy. They would have gotten to keep the $2.3 million dollar lawsuit, had they not tried to double dip.
Not Surprised
How many of these cases fly under the radar ? For people who gasp at this, what did you think would happen with this type of system ? For lawmakers who are shocked…. There are none. They encourage this behavior and situation, by refusing to reform the system, and instead perverse it by giving MONOPOLY’s Like these to an ever wider swath of companies/individuals. This has been going on a long time. TROLLS for sure, but encouraged to be so. Wonder how many people $2.3 million could feed ? Oops that’s no concern of the polluticians. (no I spelled that right!)
eleete
Re: Not Surprised
That’s why bullets are made.
Time to raise the HAMMER!
lunch time lemmings - eat your dayly portion of Mike's shit
techdirt lemmings eat whatever shit Mikey gives them
on a shitty techdirt plate
Re: lunch time lemmings - eat your dayly portion of Mike's shit
That was constructive.
Care to explain your point of view, angry dude?
Re: lunch time lemmings - eat your dayly portion of Mike's shit
Tell us about your “multiple patents” that you’ve owned for “multiple years” or just go away.
Hint, angry bitch^H^H^H^H^Hdude had once claimed to own several patents and had them granted several years ago, now we find out that he MAY have had ONE patent granted a little over a year ago but he seems incredibly shy about giving us specifics of that as well so it’s pretty safe to assume that angry bitch, err dude, is simply a piece of lying trailer trash-talking DNA.
Re: lunch time lemmings - eat your dayly portion of Mike's shit
Don’t angry dude, there are surgical procedures to help with your insufficient penis size.
Re: lunch time lemmings - eat your dayly portion of Mike's shit
wow, i never thought of it that way before. yes, i see your point.
Re: lunch time lemmings - eat your dayly portion of Mike's shit
And you, angry dude, just eat it all up and come back for more. You Should call yourself a blind angry lemming instead
No
he probably doesn’t have a point other than “I’m jealous of his traffic”
eleete
Angry Lemming
No matter what a person’s position is on
the subject of patents, it’s impossible
to condone such unscrupulous acts without
appearing morally bankrupt.
Despite whatever case you may have, such
outbursts only injure your cause.
Can anyone say
“Stupid crooks”.. they’ll never get it because they so damn stupid
The original company will just sell all its assets (patents) to another shell, and then declare bankruptcy.
Patent limit damages
Can we limit the damages for patent infringement to what the companies paid for the patent and invested in developing products using the patent? I am betting they don’t pay much for a patent and spend nothing developing products.
article -> “In March 2007, he sued DaimlerChrysler along with Toyota and Mercedes-Benz USA for infringing a software patent on a system of using software to track sales information”
Oh – The horror – Those car guys are using software to track sales ! That’s a lawsuit.
Hopefully this sort of shell game is criminal and Mr WiseGuy will do hard time.
patent hoarder
patent hoarder is just a synonym for patent troll which is secret code for yes I’m using your patent, but I don’t want to pay. Sounds like the author is stealth writing for some deep pocketed infringers. Contrary to what this shill would have everyone believe, the US Patent system is a godsend to the real innovators…the patent holder. If you own the patent, you invented it.
When corporate America agrees to not use our inventions without consent, American inventors and small entities will agree to stop suing them.
Re: patent hoarder
stv -> “… patent troll which is secret code for yes I’m using your patent, but I don’t want to pay”
Wrong.
stv -> “If you own the patent, you invented it.”
Wrong again
stv -> “American inventors and small entities will agree to stop suing them.”
Are there any actual inverntors and / or small entities suing “them” ? The articles I have read refer to large companies with growing stockpiles going after each other.