Judge Orders Patent Troll To Explain Its 'Mr. Sham' To Jury 117
netbuzz writes "Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has no problem calling Network Protection Sciences (NPS) a patent troll. What he does have a problem with is NPS telling a Texas court that NPS had an 'ongoing business concern' in that state run by a 'director of business development' when all it really had was a rented file-cabinet room and the 'director' was actually the building landlord who merely signed legal papers when NPS told him to do so. Judge Alsup calls the alleged business a 'sham' and the non-employee 'Mr. Sham,' yet he declined to dismiss the patent infringement lawsuit filed by NPS against Fortinet from which this information emerged. Instead, he told NPS, 'this jury is going to hear all of this stuff about the closet. And you're going to have to explain why "Mr. Sham" was signing these documents.'"
Wish I could buy that judge a beer (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Too bad (Score:4, Interesting)
Are you kidding? The banks are a full on mafia operation, like the Borgias in the Vatican (original storyline for The Godfather), absolutely untouchable. Cross them, and you won't see the next sunrise. This guy is a flea, like Bernie Madoff.
Re:Wish I could buy that judge a beer (Score:2, Interesting)
If you're going to be on a jury, you might as well get to do some justice.
yet East Texas refused to hear this case (Score:5, Interesting)
And yet, it seems even east Texas is getting tired of seeing these same patent trolls in their courts every week.
Re:We've heard from Judge Alsup before (Score:2, Interesting)
I hope once this trial concludes we can get an Ask Slashdot with him.