Losing patent owner hit with $4.7M fee award for bringing, persisting in frivolous claim

by D. C. Toedt January 4, 2012

This case will go into a lot of brief banks — and will probably be cited by companies telling patent trolls to get lost: A patent owner was hit with a $4.7 million fee award for having brought a baseless infringement lawsuit, then persisting in the suit in bad faith even after it should have been clear it didn’t have a case.

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Ouch! Judge Posner eviscerates both a damages expert and the trial judge who let him testify against FedEx

by D. C. Toedt December 30, 2011

An appeals court has overturned a $66 million jury verdict against Federal Express for breach of contract. Its principal reason was that that the alleged contract, wasn’t. But the appeals court didn’t stop there: In an opinion by Judge Richard Posner, himself a renowned legal-economics scholar, the court categorically rejected the testimony of the plaintiff’s damages [...]

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No movie rights for Ghost Rider comic creator – he signed away his rights by endorsing a check

by D. C. Toedt December 29, 2011

A writer involved in creating the 1972 version of the Ghost Rider comic-book character signed away his rights in the character when he endorsed a payment check containing language to that effect — so ruled a U.S. district judge in New York yesterday. As a result, the writer, Gary Friedrich, will not be able to demand [...]

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Bare-bones contracting tips for software developers and other consultants

by D. C. Toedt December 20, 2011

Here are some tips for free-lance software developers and other creative consultants, adapted from a comment I posted in response to a query at Hacker News.

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When a document says it isn’t a contract, it isn’t a contract – Posner, J.

by D. C. Toedt December 13, 2011

In the BPI v. IEC opinion from the Seventh Circuit (by Judge Posner), a letter of intent between two parties contained a disclaimer of any intent to enter into a binding contract. That disclaimer was enough to bar one party from suing the other for breach of contract, and also to kill the plaintiff’s claim for promissory fraud.

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