TrollTracker is not sure, but the September 5th trial in TGIP, Inc. v. AT&T Corp. et al., going to trial next week in Beaumont, Texas with Judge Ron Clark, may be the next patent troll case to go to trial in the Eastern District. That's if Judge Clark doesn't grant the pending summary judgment motions of noninfringement, invalidity, or laches/equitable estoppel. And if he doesn't grant defendants' motion, filed late last week, to continue the trial in light of Judge Clark's apparent inability to get to their pending summary judgment motions!

TGIP appears to have the patent assets of the former company, Call Processing, Inc., which specialized in prepaid calling cards. All of the assets were seemingly sold to a Kansas company that got a license along with the business. But the CPI owners, in a familiar story, kept the patents so they could wait until over a decade after the patents issued and sue an entire industry (or most of one - they forgot a defendant or two and then were denied the right to amend the complaint over a year into the case to add them).

Even though the case was filed in Marshall and originally assigned to Judge Davis, Judge Clark seems to have convinced everyone to proceed in Beaumont. There are 3 defendant groups remaining - AT&T represented by Sidley Austin, MCI/Bell Atlantic/Verizon represented by Baker Botts, and US South/Incomm represented by Hunton & Williams, but with "lead attorney" now Otis Carroll of Ireland Carroll & Kelley - the Tyler, Texas attorney who pulled the rabbit out of the hat and won against a PI-turned-IP attorney in Forgent v. Echostar. Carroll may have a tougher time with this one, given the existence of multiple defendants, and given the law firm representing the plaintiff: McKool Smith (although apparently Mike McKool, and not Sam Baxter -- I think). Should be a good show.

Patent trolls have had mixed results these last few months at trial in the Eastern District of Texas. Orion, one of the Constellations, did win a $36M verdict against Hyundai. But Echostar invalidated Forgent's patents after admitting infringement, and Charter Communications got a jury to agree that Hybrid Patents' patents were not infringed. Unless summary judgment disposes of this case (and Judge Clark has gotten rid of at least some accused products in TGIP on summary judgment of noninfringement), should be an interesting trial.

After TGIP, TrollTracker isn't sure what's next for troll trials in Texas. Another troll case going to trial soon is one in Texarkana: Mobile Micromedia Solutions, LLC v. Nissan North America. This one appears to be a lawyer-troll. The patent-in-suit originally issued to patent attorney Irah H. Donner, now a partner at Wilmer Hale. Donner assigned the patent to Renaissance Group IP Holdings of Atlanta, a company managed by Hill, Kertscher & Wharton named partner Scott A. Wharton. Wharton then went and formed Mobile Micromedia - a "Texas corporation," at the same address of Patton Tidwell, and sued Nissan. Judge Folsom is holding a summary judgment hearing on September 19, and if the case survives summary judgment, it goes to trial on November 6.

If anyone knows of any other troll cases going to trial in September or October in Texas, email me!

Edit: That didn't take long! Motion for continuance? Denied! Quote: "The court's docket does not permit a continuance, let alone a delay to consider motions which could have been filed months before the deadline. In order to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive determination of this action pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 1, Defendants' motion for a continuance must be denied. If the facts are as clear as Defendants allege, then presumably a short trial and quick jury verdict will dispose of the case more surely than a summary judgment order to be reviewed de novo by higher courts." So from that, I definitely think TGIP is going to be in front of a jury next week.

Posted by Troll Tracker at 8:07 AM