February 8th, 2011
When it comes to our modern day society, almost, everything is about speed. We have created a way to do all things in our life faster. We are what you can call an “instant” culture, we want everything instantly.
From communication, to appliances, to services, to health, to economy, it is all about happening the fastest way possible. Well, now we can include patent litigation. A buzz word you might have heard being used in the legal world is the word “rocket docket”.
When you’ve put an over-night mail label on a court case than you have what they call a “rocket docket”. And when it comes to patent infringement lawsuit that is what the plaintiff is looking for.
This is especially true for the so named “patent trolls” whose whole lively hood is based on patent infringement lawsuits coming from their unmanufactured patents. It seems there is a competition to see who can create the best “rocket docket” in the nation.
At court houses in places like western Wisconsin, Virginia, and east Texas, judges have taken on different practices in order to speed up the litigation process. In one location the judges start as early as 6:30am and can wait as long as 2:30pm before they let court out for lunch.
In another, the judge issues a time limit for council to share, going as far as having a chess clock available to abruptly stop the council when time is up.
Whatever method it might be these court districts have successfully found a way to speed up the process as patent infringement cases have been shortened in some places to as little as 6 ½ months compared to the nationally average of 3-5 years. Well, it looks like the “instant” culture has made its stamp once again.
Tags: Buzz Word, Chess Clock, Court Case, Court Houses, East Texas, east texas court rocket docket, Judge Issues, Litigation Process, Lively Hood, Mail Label, Night Mail, Patent Infringement Cases, Patent Infringement Lawsuit, Patent Infringement Lawsuits, Patent Litigation, Plaintiff, Rocket Docket, Texas Judges, Time Limit, Trolls, Western Wisconsin, what does rocket docket mean
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February 1st, 2011
Change is in the wind and it’s coming via Capitol Hill. The current issue of patent infringement abuse taking place in the court houses of Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler Texas has Big Brother on its back now.
Facing this issue that is taking place in East Texas might not be on the top of the list of legislation, but it is definitely something that must be taken care of. The main issue is due mostly to the abuse that is taking place.
Although the term “patent troll” has been around for much longer, it has become more of a common phrase in the past 5-6 years. Patent trolls are the culprits responsible for the rise of patent infringement cases due to their excessive use of the court system in order to gain wealth.
Patent trolls are companies who look to push patent infringement to the limit by using any patents that they hold to target any other business that has a product or technology that has any similarity to their patent in order to sue them for damages.
More times than not they actually look to buy patents off of others. The government has taken notice of the abuse and has already submitted one bill to bring reform to patent infringement cases.
The major keys that they have identified is, first, to give the judges more responsibility by reviewing how much damage was done in by the product or technology and the other responsibility is to access how much really due to the company holding the patent.
The second major idea is to limit “forum shopping” that is, to limit cases being held in locations favorable to plaintiffs. So far no bills have been passed yet.
Whatever your perspective is about big government or little government, the abuse of the legal system has gotten them involved and that is just the beginning.
Tags: 6 Years, Big Brother, Capitol Hill, Common Phrase, Court Houses, Culprits, Current Issue, Damages, East Texas, east texas patent troll, Legislation, Major Keys, Marshall, Patent Infringement Cases, patent troll legislation, patent troll reform, Patents, Perspective, Plaintiffs, Similarity, Texarkana Texas, Trolls, Tyler Texas
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January 30th, 2011
While considering the current issue of the number of “patent troll” cases taking place in the East Texas area I remembered a story I heard of a town in the Juarez Valley outside of the Mexican border city of Juarez.
During the past number of years the people of a small town in the Juarez Valley became aware of the drug trafficking taking place in there town due to its proximity to the United States.
But instead of doing something to rid themselves of this illegal practice they created a kind of symbiotic relationship as the drug traffickers brought business to the small town.
As time passed, the highly documented battle for trafficking territory began to take place and reached the small town resulting in atrocious acts of violence and killing.
The small town’s passive acceptance of the traffickers and their business began to have its repercussions as the violence spilled over into their lives and climaxed when, one day, notes were posted throughout the town announcing a date in which every person had to leave town or be killed.
Of course, not at all to this extreme, the concern for East Texas is that there will not be passive acceptance of these “patent trolls” just to capitalize on their business.
The desperateness of these “patent trolls” to have their cases brought to the favorable court circuit in East Texas reached an all-time high when it was reported that one group set up an employee-less front in a local Tyler office in order to file in a court there.
If the people of East Texas continue to allow this ridiculous practice to take place, there could be repercussions later greater than expected. Because when you sell your soul to the devil, you will get burned!
Tags: Acts Of Violence, Border City, City Of Juarez, Current Issue, Devil, Drug Traffickers, Drug Trafficking, East Texas, East Texas Area, East Texas Town, Illegal Practice, Juarez Valley, marshall texas patent litigation income, marshall texas patent trolling, Mexican Border, Partner In Crime, Passive Acceptance, Patent, patent trolling, patent trolling drug smuggling, Proximity, Repercussions, Symbiotic Relationship, Trolls
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January 27th, 2011
Doesn’t it seem like every time a commercial comes on advertising some new technology or service, you have to do a Google search just to understand what their talking about?
Droid phones, 3G, 4G, IPads, Blackberry, and the list goes on and on. We are facing a modern age in which the inventing and producing of new technology is moving at lightning speed and whoever is at the front will make the most money.
Unfortunately, other aspects of the technology business are not keeping up. This is especially true when it comes to patents and what constitutes patent infringement.
Now, we are not just talking about keeping up with the incredible growth of wireless media that has taken place this last decade, we are talking 50 years since they set the standard that is currently being used to assign and distinguish patents.
And what that means is that the standard in which the courts of East Texas use to hand out high money compensation for patent infringement is outdated.
It is this exact standard in question that the citizens and judges of the courts in Marshall, Texarkana, and Tyler have used to award hundreds of millions of dollars for patent infringement.
The two major factors in question in the current standard is to what extent a patent reaches in certain technology and how much financial damage is really taking place with infringements.
Both factors, if changed, would lower the amount of compensation dramatically. Considering that the majority of new technology deals with multiple patents, the potential of monster lawsuits bringing some companies to their knees is in the future if the current standard is not updated.
Tags: Blackberry, East Texas, East Texas Courts, Google, Google Search, High Money, Infringements, Ipads, Knees, Last Decade, Lawsuits, Lightning Speed, Money Compensation, Monster, New Technology, Patent Holders, Patent Infringement, Patents, Technology Business, Technology Deals, Texarkana
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January 26th, 2011
Intellectual property law houses a few different subcategories. If you own a company in Tyler TX, it is important to know what type of intellectual property law you need to implement when it comes to protecting your intellectual property. We hear the terms trademark and copyright used all the time, but it’s true that most people don’t know the difference between the two.
Copyright law protects the owner of an idea only if that idea has been turned into a tangible product such as a book or work of art. Copyrights are only valid for the life of the creator plus 70 years for works that are done by individuals. The time is less for products made by a company. Further, a copyright cannot be abandoned and the owner of a copyright doesn’t even have to produce it in order to pursue those infringing upon the copyright. However, if a company doesn’t go after a potential infringer as soon as possible, the infringer can go through with a lawsuit and claim implied consent due to you or your company’s lack of action.
Trademark law, on the other hand, covers the logos, artwork, and phrases used to distinguish and represent companies. Popular trademarks include the Coca-Cola logo and restaurants like Burger King and McDonalds. As long as trademarks are registered and actively used, they can be perpetual, unlike the limited life of copyrights. However, if the trademark is not actively used, it can be abandoned or the registration can be cancelled.
Tags: Artwork, Burger King, Coca Cola, Coca Cola Logo, Copyright Law, Copyrights, Houses, Intellectual Property Law, Logos, mcdonalds, Phrases, Restaurants, Subcategories, Tangible Product, Trademark Law, Work Of Art
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