Patent Trolls Still Very Busy: These Two 'Innovators' Have Filed 22 Lawsuits Since January Of This Year
from the keeping-lawyers-employed-is-not-a-'good'-or-'service' dept
Here comes another round of lawsuits from non-practicing entities. With patent reform constantly just around the corner, it appears that those seeking to extract money from actual businesses with actual products and services are making a push to get some lawsuits filed before reforms kick in.
Landmark Technology, LLC makes no products and offers no services, something that can easily be surmised by its “address” in Tyler, Texas. It does, however, generate lawsuits and demand letters, most referencing patent 6,289,319: ‘Automatic Business and Financial Transaction Processing System.’ Or, as the EFF puts it more succinctly: paying with a credit card online.
Landmark Technology is Lawrence Lockwood’s latest incarnation. Lockwood pushed this patent through back in 2001, apparently racking up ‘tens of thousands of dollars’ in costs while doing so. Since that point, he has sued multiple companies for infringing on his patent and extracted several settlements. Many he sued under the name of Pangea IP (PanIP), which was covered here in 2003.
Under this name (originated in 2008), Lockwood has sued multiple companies (Justia lists 79 lawsuits under this name). His latest batch of lawsuits was filed last Friday, naming such diverse entities as Dunkin’ Donuts, Abercrombie & Fitch, Caesar’s Gaming, Hitachi and Harley-Davidson. His previous batch, filed January 15th, named Louis Vuitton, The Children’s Place, Rubbermaid and a handful of others.
Landmark’s physical address in Tyler, Texas shares office space with other patent trolls, including Techdev Holdings, Eon Corp. IP Holdings and US Ethernet Innovations. Lockwood’s m.o. seems unchanged from a decade ago: send demand letters and follow up with a lawsuit. The America Invents Act may have (mostly) gone into effect in March of last year, but it’s had little discernible effect on those who do nothing more than hold onto exploitable patents without ever making use of the “invention.”
Like Better Mouse Company, LLC, a company that doesn’t seem to exist outside of lawsuits filed in East Texas. Better Mouse Company has filed 10 patent infringement lawsuits in the last 30 days, targeting Mad Catz, AsusTech and Corsair, among others — all over a patent described as “Apparatus for setting multi-stage displacement resolution of a mouse.” The patent was originally issued to SunPlus Technology Co. of Taiwan, but judging from the lawsuit activity, it looks to be in the hands of a patent-exploiting shell company. Bonus: Better Mouse is represented by the law firm of Antonelli, Harrington & Thompson LLP, the same team that represented patent troll Execware in its losing battle against Overstock.com.
This ongoing trolling is why entities like the EFF are pushing the Senate to pass its version of the Innovation Act, which sailed through Congress late last year. Although the Act was watered down by lobbying efforts, the Senate has an opportunity to build something stronger before it makes its way to the President. Until then, AIA or not, it still seems to be business as usual for non-practicing entities.
Filed Under: lawrence lockwood, patent trolls, patents
Companies: better mouse llc, landmark technology, panip
Comments on “Patent Trolls Still Very Busy: These Two 'Innovators' Have Filed 22 Lawsuits Since January Of This Year”
Patents without product
Until you have produced something, you have nothing but ideas. And one should not own ideas. Emphasis on “should”.
Billy Goat Gruff?
Next up, a new troll named Better Mousetrap Company, LLC, which will apply its patent leather soles to the backside of upstart Better Mouse Co. This will continue until someone finally (!) gets a patent on ‘business plan for being a complete and total Richard cranium whilst suing the entire planet.’
Re: Billy Goat Gruff?
Richard Cranium. You should trademark it sir. Here, have my “funny”
laughable
I just called them on the phone. They are “not interested in talking to me” dipshit at the front desk did opine that they don’t actually do shit though. I will ring them back.
1 (800) 768-1324
I am sorry sir we are not interested lol…. poor chick at the front desk. I am going to call her every 10 minutes. I asked a simple question. “what do you folks do other than nothing. She cant answer me.”
Re: laughable
Blaaaaah ha ha ha ha ! ! !
…Keep up the great work.
😀
wtf
You will get Rachel on the phone. She refuses to answer whether or not the company actually makes something or provides a service. Like literally, “I cant answer that sir”
Nigel
These assclowns should sue “we don’t settle with patent trolls” Newegg. They’d get their ass handed to them then. And maybe get their BS patents invalidated.
The use of the word “Innovators” bounded by apostrophes makes it seem like sarcasm. These firms are clearly innovating, even if it doesn’t seem obvious to you.
For example, they are improving on:
Ways to look stupid
Ways to clog up the court system
Ways to extort money
Ways to abuse over general patents.
Ways to be little $&!@s
Re: Re:
Yeah, but unless they were the first to do this, they’re not innovating, they’re duplicating. The REAL innovators in this arena need to wake up and sue these folks.
Re: Re: Re:
Problem is real innovators would right a straightforward description, which the lawyers would mangle into unintelligibility, and lose the case.
Re: Re: Re:
Be fair, murgatroyd. Their innovation isn’t that they invented doing those things. It’s that they’re finding ways to do them more efficiently.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
…with a computer.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
And the their next innovation adds:-
on the Internet.
more dissembling by Masnick's puppets
‘Patent Trolls Still Very Busy’
infringers and their paid puppets? definition of ?patent troll?:
anyone who sues us for stealing their invention
All this talk about trolls and so called ?patent reform? is just spin control by large infringers and their paid puppets to cover up their theft.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=276448190&m=276545654&live=1
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/06/243022966/secret-persuasion-how-big-campaign-donors-stay-anonymous
The patent system now teeters on the brink of lawlessness. Call it what you will…patent hoarder, patent troll, non-practicing entity, shell company, etc. It all means one thing: ?we?re using your invention and we?re not going to stop or pay?. It?s a pure red herring by large invention thieves and their paid puppets to kill any inventor support system. Their goal is to legalize theft. The fact is, many of the large multinationals and their puppets who defame inventors in this way themselves make no products in the US or create any American jobs and it is their continued blatant theft which makes it impossible for the true creators to do so. To infringers the only patents that are legitimate are their own -if they have any. Meanwhile, the huge multinationals ship more and more US jobs overseas.
It?s about property rights. They should not only be for the rich and powerful -campaign contributors. Our founders: Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and others felt so strongly about the rights of inventors that they included inventors rights to their creations and discoveries in the Constitution. They understood the trade off. Inventors are given a limited monopoly and in turn society gets the benefits of their inventions (telephone, computer, airplane, automobile, lighting, etc) into perpetuity and the jobs the commercialization of those inventions bring. For 200 years the patent system has not only fueled the US economy, but the world?s. If we weaken the patent system, we force inventors underground like Stradivarius (anyone know how to make a Stradivarius violin?) and in turn weaken our economy and job creation. Worse yet, we destroy the American dream -the ability to prosper from our ingenuity for the benefit of our families and communities. To kill or weaken the patent system is to kill all our futures. Show me a country with weak or ineffective property rights and I?ll show you a weak economy with high unemployment. If we cannot own the product of our minds or labors, what can we be said to truly own. Life and liberty are fundamentally tied to and in fact based on property rights. Our very lives are inseparably tied to our property.
Prior to the Supreme Court case eBay v Mercexchange, small entities had a viable chance at commercializing their inventions. If the defendant was found guilty, an injunction was most always issued. Then the inventor small entity could enjoy the exclusive use of his invention in commercializing it. Unfortunately, injunctions are often no longer available to small entity inventors because of the eBay decision so we have no fair chance to compete with much larger entities who are now free to use our inventions. Essentially, large infringers now have your gun and all the bullets. Worse yet, inability to commercialize means those same small entities will not be hiring new employees to roll out their products and services. And now those same parties who killed injunctions for small entities and thus blocked their chance at commercializing now complain that small entity inventors are not commercializing. They created the problem and now they want to blame small entities for it. What dissembling! If you don?t like this state of affairs (your unemployment is running out), tell your Congress member. Then maybe we can get some sense back into the patent system with injunctions fully enforceable on all infringers by all patentees, large and small.
Those wishing to help fight big business giveaways should contact us as below and join the fight as we are building a network of inventors and other stakeholders to lobby Congress to restore property rights for all patent owners -large and small.
For the truth about trolls and so-called patent reform, please see http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html#pt.
http://piausa.wordpress.com/
http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/142741
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1792442
Re: more dissembling by Masnick's puppets
oh hi Mr. Riley, nice to see you again
Re: Re:
Ronald J. Riley just hates it when due process is enforced.
The Nearest True Troll
The voices against against B.S. as a primary product seem to have missed the nearest B.S. based producers Techdirt, Masnick and Cushing.
There are solutions to the (very modest as an overall percentage of patent litigation) abusers of the patent litigation system. Solutions which don’t rely on punishing or destroying inventors, and small start-ups. Rather then give more power to the wealthy individuals and corporations, the playing field for all can be tilted through sanctions and required offsets against corporations that attack or infringe on a regular basis.
An inventor who conceives a truly new idea may not ever be able to manufacture it effectively, and yet the idea can become important to society and spawn a new industry. Such people have a right to their intellectual property as much as actors, or writers.
It can take years before a patent is obtained or the idea development reaches a stage where it is ready to be sold or stolen.
Re: Re:
And what a surprise, you refuse to actually give suggestions for these solutions. You’d rather sue people for scanning documents to send in an email.
How’s suck Ronald J. Riley’s cock working out for you?
Fixed link
The link in the article for “paying with a credit card online” is no longer working.
Should be changed to:
https://www.eff.org/document/eff-patent-busting-project