Ars Technica :Patent troll sues Feds

[Winehole23]

MPHJ Technology Investments quickly became one of the best-known "patent trolls" of all time by sending out thousands of letters to small businesses—16,465 of them, we now know—saying that if the business did not pay a licensing fee of $1,000 or more per worker, it would be sued for patent infringement. MPHJ claimed to have patents that cover any networked "scan-to-email" function.

As the debate over so-called "patent trolls" has flared up in Congress, MPHJ became the go-to example for politicians and attorneys general trying to show that patent abuse has spun out of control. "We're talking about bottom feeders," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in one Senate hearing (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/senator-wants-end-to-demand-letters-from-bottom-feeder-patent-trolls/) focused on patent demand letters.


We now know that MPHJ has also become the first patent troll targeted by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC's interest in MPHJ was revealed in an audacious "preemptive strike" lawsuit that MPHJ actually filed against the FTC on Monday. The suit, which names the four sitting FTC commissioners personally, says that the agency has overstepped its bounds and trampled on MPHJ's constitutional rights.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/01/patent-stunner-under-attack-nations-most-notorious-troll-sues-federal-govt/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Te chnica+-+All+content%29

[Winehole23]

In late 2012, a company called MPHJ Technology started sending out letters demanding payments of $1,000 per worker (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/01/patent-trolls-want-1000-for-using-scanners/) for using basic "scan to e-mail" functions, saying they infringed a batch of patents. That's earned them major political scorn, especially from attorneys general in three smaller states: Vermont (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/05/patent-troll-that-wants-1000-per-worker-gets-sued-by-vermont-a-g/), Minnesota (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/scanner-trolls-kicked-out-of-minnesota/), and Nebraska (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/second-state-cracks-down-on-patent-wielding-scanner-trolls/).


Today, Nebraska AG Jon Bruning announced (http://www.ago.ne.gov/resources/dyn/files/1142626za3cb41c6/_fn/010714%2520Leg%2520Presser%2520Release.pdf) his 2014 legislative package of several proposed bills. At the top of the list: the Nebraska Patent Abuse Prevention Act (PDF (http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2013.12.05-Nebraska-Patent-Abuse-Prevention-Act-legislative-draft.pdf)). The act would prohibit making a "bad faith assertion of patent infringement" in a patent demand letter and would require anyone sending out more than 25 demand letters in a year to register with the attorney general's office.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/01/nebraska-ag-seeks-to-shut-down-vague-patent-demand-letters/

[Winehole23]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/01/ny-deal-with-scanner-trolls-will-lead-to-kinder-gentler-demand-letters/