Righthaven Fails To Pay Attorneys Fees Ordered By The Court, Court Asked To Declare Righthaven In Contempt

Copyright

from the grubstaked dept

Ah, Righthaven. The company is now building up a history of not paying, even after a court orders it to pay. While there have been rumors swirling about filing for bankruptcy, in the meantime, the company just seems to be ignoring court orders. As you may recall, back in June, Righthaven lost one of its many cases (and many losses) to Wayne Hoehn, who Righthaven had sued despite not properly securing the copyrights in question. The court found this so egregious that it ordered Righthaven to pay $34,045.50 in legal fees to the Randazza Group, which had represented Hoehn, by September 14th.

Well, September 15th rolled around… and no money, as you can see from the filing below. Righthaven had asked the court for a stay to grant it more time, but the court had not ruled either way, meaning that the company should have paid up. Hoehn had even offered to give it more time if Righthaven would post bond to show that it could pay. Righthaven chose not to respond.

Because of all of this, on Friday, Hoehn asked the court to declare Righthaven in contempt of court, to appoint “a receiver to manage Righthaven’s remaining business and assets, and to require the company to post $148,118 in cash or via a bond with the court. Why the higher number? That’s the calculated value of the additional fees expended since the original ruling, plus the anticipated costs of the appeal that Righthaven has indicated its planning.

Late on Sunday, Hoehn/Randazza kicked it up a notch, filing for a Writ of Execution (embedded below), which would allow for the potential seizure of Righthaven bank accounts and property in order to attempt to get the amount ordered by the court.

It seems likely that Righthaven simply can’t pay. I wonder how it feels to be on the receiving end of a judicial system ordering the company to pay up more than they have. It seems kind of ironic, since it tried to put hundreds of individuals and companies in that exact position via its business model.

Filed Under: attorney's fees, contempt, copyright
Companies: righthaven

Patent Lawsuit So Bogus That The Judge Ordered Sanctions And Attorney's Fees Paid

Legal Issues

from the about-time dept

There are an awful lot of bogus patent lawsuits out there, but even when the lawsuits are tossed out it’s very, very rare for a judge to order the plaintiffs to pay the legal fees of the defendants. However, in Illinois it just happened. Joe Mullin has the story of a patent that was quite clearly limited to an infrared camera linked to a GPS system. The patent examiner required the inventor to include the word “infrared” before declaring the patent acceptable and non-obvious. Yet, that didn’t stop the patent holder from suing LG, Pantech and Disney for the Disney mobile phone service that let parents track where their kids were. The product was a huge commercial failure, but those are three big companies worth suing for infringement.

However, the judge noted, sternly, that the patent holder and the law firm that was handling the case (which had also worked on the patent) clearly decided to ignore what the patent actually said about it being for infrared cameras. This practice is more common than it should be. Even when claims are written to be narrowly focused, there’s always some wiggle room, and many patent holders bring lawsuits on technologies that are pretty far from what’s in the claims — usually hoping that the accused will settle rather than take the issue to court. In this case, though, the judge pointed out that it was clearly a frivolous lawsuit, and ordered the defendants get reasonable costs and attorneys’ fees. If this happened more often, maybe we’d see fewer ridiculous patent lawsuits.

Filed Under: attorney's fees, cameras, frivolous, gps, infrared, patents
Companies: disney, lg, pantech

Another Judge Slaps Down Another Set Of Medtronic Patent Attorneys

Legal Issues

from the uppity-judges dept

We noted recently that a judge was so fed up with a pair of well-known patent attorneys that he not only overturned the verdict, but he made the attorneys pay the opposing side’s legal bills. Now, in a totally separate patent battle, yet another judge has done the same exact thing. And, in what may (or may not) be a coincidence, both sets of lawyers were representing Medtronic. In both cases, they ignored the earlier parameters set on how the patent claims could be portrayed in court. It’s good to see judges pushing back, though it really does say something that patent attorneys felt they could get away with this.

Filed Under: attorney's fees, patent abuse, patents
Companies: medtronic