'Tech troll' sues EFF to silence 'Stupid Patent of the Month' blog. Now the EFF sues back

A better idea

Wouldn't having Assad drop sarin gas on their HQ be more fitting? A MOAB would kill them instantly and painlessly. The sarin will insure they suffer before they die, as patent troll attorneys deserve.

Throw some MOAB's on their effin HQs, problem solved

But that could possibly enrich Trump via his shares in outfits that make such stuff. I'd first take their money away under some "proceeds of crime" statue, and then kick them into jail to enjoy the presence of other people who do not have social engagement high on their personal agenda. See how they like being victimised.

That said, it doesn't address the root problem: a patent system that makes this all possible. That really needs fixing.

MOABs....

"Throw some MOAB's on their effin HQs, problem solved"

I think just the one will be pretty emphatic :-/.

>Throw some MOAB's on their effin HQs, problem solved

Just make things worse - for a start MOAB is a Registered Trademark in Australia

https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/view/1047589?q=MOAB

.....and effin is registered 3 times (it is Australia after all)

Nurse! He got to the computer again!

So Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan wasn't enough?

Since when throwing bombs solve problems?

Re: Aussie Judges

If you read the judgement linked to in the article, the EFF didn't defend the action in Australia, therefore judgement was awarded to the plaintiff by default - it would have worked in exactly the same way in the US. This isn't a case of an Aussie judge making a stupid decision, it's just that if you don't defend a civil action then it's decided in the plaintiff's favour. It's also worth noting that the judge didn't include any batshit-crazy requirements to remove any references anywhere on the web, just things the defendant has direct control over.

Re: Aussie Judges

Speaking of trolls...

Per-capita CO2 emissions (2013, the latest available data), starting at the highest: Qatar, Trinidad & Tobago, Curacao, Kuwait, Bahrain, Sint Maarten, Brunei, Luxembourg, UAE, Saudi Arabia, United States, Australia, ...

Not that it changes the fact that GEMSA pretty much meet the definition of "patent trolls", but in Australian law there's precedent (based on the principle of international sovereignty) that, in the case of widely-disseminated material, defamation occurs where the target resides. Normally you'd expect that'd please the sort of people who believe their nation is sovereign and that "offence can only be taken, not given" - but it seems they're less pleased when it works against them...

Re: Aussie Judges

There would be a counter-suit on behalf of all galahs.

(nb "Stupid galah" is a common phrase in the land of galahs)

Re: Aussie Judges

Right now there's no jurisdiction.

If EFF respond to say so, then Australian courts will take it that they accept jurisdiction and make things even worse.

Yes. Australian law really is that fucked up.

Re: Aussie Judges

I read the pdf there was no representation from the EFF. So yes a default judgment. Lol, too late, pointed out better in the above comment.

Re: Aussie Judges

Maybe there should be a rule that says if you bring an action against a counterparty in their country, you can't run home to your own if things don't go as you wished?

The EFF is a US-based nonprofit. It'd be entirely inappropriate for them to use their funds to fight what is, to them, a meaningless case in another country.

"you can't sue us because we're Americans" instead of fighting the ruling in Australia.

Actually, that is the valid legal point. Here, we have it enshrined in our country's constitution that we can say things that someone may deem as being unpopular. If that speech causes people to take note and someone's dubious business model grinds to a halt, so be it. This is what happens when someone "calls a spade a spade," and stands up to legal bullying over the statement.

If the trolls don't like California sunshine, too bad.

By your logic, noone could ever publish anything that's illegal anywhere in the world.

I am very sure you can easily see the problems with this approach.

It does. Instead, you can go with "You can't sue us in Australia because we are an exclusively American outfit operating exclusively under US law and publishing our articles for consumption by US citizens."

The alleged crime happened in the US, by a US organisation and no doubt US citizens. The Australian court has no jurisdiction in the US and no way to enforce its ruling except by blocking all EFF IPs and disappearing the EFF from Australia's version of the internet.

re: fighting the ruling in Australia

Wrong. They're doing exactly the right thing by fighting the claim that an Australian ruling has any validity in the US - that is much more to the point than butting heads with a foolish and misinformed judge in a minor country like Australia. (Sorry, but there it is, and I live in an even more minor country.)

Re: "organizes files and operating systems into "virtual cabinets.""

That's part of the description but at no time is that claimed as part of the invention. Their three basic/independent claims are 1) a GUI... multiple operating systems..., 16) a GUI... at least one operating system..., and 28) a computer program product... for generating, a GUI on the display device... All other claims are derivations of these three. There is no claim for context switching or cold swaps or anything else. In fact, going further, there is little to nothing technical in the patent whatsoever it's all look and feel bovine effluent. It really should have been a design patent if anything but there isn't enough detail even for that.

Stupid patent of the month, it's in good running for stupid patent of the year.

Re: EFF Lawyers are EFF'n Stupid

Wow! A window with a counter, counting down! In 1999! Probably 15 years after such a thing first appeared in civilian systems and 30 years after the military had it.

Actually a countdown is much older than that. The Wikipedia article mentions its use to start a Cambridge rowing race in the 19th C, and Fritz Lang used one in his movie Frau im Mond, released in 1929. Putting a countdown in a computer window should count as a trivial and obvious extension, so not patentable.