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Atlanta-based attorney Scott A. Horstemeyer has sued the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and "Staff Attorney and Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents" Daniel Nazer for libel over an April blog post that bashed patent litigant Eclipse IP LLC for US Patent No. 9,013,334, "Notification systems and methods that permit change of quantity for delivery and/or pickup of goods and/or services." The patent was filed by "prolific inventor" Scott Horstemeyer on March 5, 2014. EFF explains:
We think that all of Eclipse's patents deserve a stupid patent of the month award. But the '334 patent is especially deserving. This is because the Patent Office issued this patent after a federal court invalidated similar claims from other patents in the same family. On September 4, 2014, Judge Wu of the Central District of California issued an order invalidating claims from three of Eclipse's patents. The court explained that these patents claim abstract ideas like checking to see if a task has been completed. Judge Wu applied the Supreme Court's recent decision in Alice v CLS Bank and held the claims invalid under Section 101 of the Patent Act.
All of Eclipse's patents were both "invented" and prosecuted by a patent attorney named Scott Horstemeyer (who just so happens to have prosecuted Arrivalstar's patents too). Patent applicants and their attorneys have an ethical obligation to disclose any information material to patentability. Despite this, from what we can tell from the Patent Office's public access system PAIR, Horstemeyer did not disclose Judge Wu's decision to the examiner during the prosecution of the '334 patent, even though the decision invalidated claims in the patent family. While Horstemeyer has not made any genuine contribution to notification "technology," he has shown advanced skill at gaming the patent system.
EFF has managed to get "stupid" patents invalidated by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, such as the one that was used to threaten podcasters. You can follow Horstemeyer's litigation against EFF here.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Informative) by Ox0000 on Thursday June 04 2015, @06:14PM
"Notification systems and methods that permit change of quantity for delivery and/or pickup of goods and/or services."
Oh, great... Thanks editor(s)... Now if I ever violate this patent, the damages will be tripled because now I know it exists...
Thanks a bunch!
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday June 04 2015, @06:30PM
Quick! Memorize this: "The average air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow is approximately eleven meters per second." There, that should be enough to push out the memory of what ever it was that you did not want to remember, if your brain was previously full, and if the much derided previous article is correct.
(Score: 4, Funny) by The Archon V2.0 on Thursday June 04 2015, @06:35PM
I memorized it but all it pushed out was the memory of my mother's love.
Now I'm liable for patent violation AND depressed.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday June 04 2015, @06:42PM
Obviously, you need a lawyer! Or possibly, you are a lawyer?
(Score: 1) by TWX on Thursday June 04 2015, @08:32PM
African, or European swallow?
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS...
and everywhere the language went, it was a total loss.
(Score: 2) by SpockLogic on Friday June 05 2015, @01:00AM
African, or European swallow?
"One swallow does not a fellatrix make", something worth remembering.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Thursday June 04 2015, @09:54PM
You are very welcome, sir (or ma'am)! We aim to please.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson