Kodak Says Intellectual Ventures Behind Patent Lawsuit Filed By Shell Company

Legal Issues

from the piercing-the-veil dept

Last year, Zusha Elinson broke the story that, despite Nathan Myhrvold hiding behind the claim that Intellectual Ventures hadn’t sued anyone over patent infringement, IV’s patents were miraculously showing up in lawsuits being filed by shell companies. Of course, IV and the shell companies have been completely silent over how this all works, so IV can pretend to be totally separate. However, multiple reports have come out claiming that IV “sells” these patents to patent attorneys, who set up shell companies with which to sue, and IV gets a cut of any money won. In other words, it’s hiding behind these shell companies to pretend it’s not suing, when the truth is quite different.

It seems that at least one company sued over such a patent is hitting back. Joe Mullin points us to the Legal Pad blog, which notes that Kodak, who has been sued for patent infringement by a shell company (PFI) being represented by Ray Niro (famous for, among other things, being the first person labeled a “patent troll,” as well as suing a bunch of companies he didn’t like with a bogus patent — finally rejected for good, recently — that he claimed covered any website that used a JPEG image), doesn’t believe that it’s really the shell company that’s behind this lawsuit. It’s demanding that Intellectual Ventures take part:

“Kodak should be accorded the right to sit down across the table from IV as well as PFI, so that it can inquire as to IV’s intentions,” Jones Day lawyers write. “It should come as no surprise that Kodak’s attitude towards settlement may be affected by learning whether or not this case is the first of a series of patent litigation salvos to be launched against it by IV, whether directly or through a proxy like PFI.”

IV’s response, as per usual, is to play dumb:

Note that this doesn’t actually answer the question of whether or not IV has a financial interest in the lawsuit. Of course it doesn’t have actual control over the shell company or the lawsuit. No one thinks IV is so stupid to leave a trail that direct. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t sell this patent with the plan of profiting from such a lawsuit. The whole thing is so wink wink nudge nudge it just shows off IV’s total arrogance. It thinks that it’s smarter than everyone else and can play the system to its (very profitable) advantage — even if it’s stifling innovation left and right.

Filed Under: patents
Companies: intellectual ventures, kodak