Notorious Patent Troll Sues Federal Trade Commission 102
Fnord666 writes with news that the notorious scanner patent troll MPHJ Technology caught the eye of the FTC, and decided to file a preemptive lawsuit (PDF) against the Federal government. From the article: 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. ... The FTC was going to sue under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bars deceptive trade practices. MPHJ says that the FTC is greatly overstepping its bounds. The patent-licensing behavior doesn't even amount to 'commerce' by the standards of the FTC Act, because the letters are not 'the offer of a good or sale for service,' argues MPHJ. Furthermore, MPHJ has a First Amendment right to notify companies that it believes its patents are being infringed."
Links on the subject (Score:5, Informative)
The patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US7986426 [google.com]
Another view: http://stop-project-paperless.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Patent-US7986426.pdf [stop-proje...erless.com]
Analysis of the patent: http://www.patentbuddy.com/Patent/7986426 [patentbuddy.com]
The dispute of the patent: http://www.ricoh-usa.com/news/news_release.aspx?prid=1052&alnv=pr [ricoh-usa.com]
Dispute filing: http://www.sutherland.com/portalresource/Ricoh_institution_decision.pdf [sutherland.com]
Possible prior art:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_DocuShare [wikipedia.org]
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/xerox/xns/XNSG058504_XNS_Introduction.pdf [trailing-edge.com] (1985)