Photography patent troll is defeated

[groundloop]

I just saw this on a photography forum and thought it might interest a few folks here. Capstone Photography had been sued by Peter Wolf of PhotoCrazy for patent infringement. Mr. Wolf had managed to obtain 3 patents for the process of cataloging event photos and selling them online (something ANY photographer could figure out how to do in about 5 minutes). This patent troll had used the high cost of defending oneself in court as a means to coerce payment from small photography companies who did event photography. A ruling just came out invalidating the patents, here's a link to the ruling https://www.eff.org/files/2014/10/29/capstone_order_granting_motion_for_judgment_on_the_pleadings.pdf

Also, here's a link to the site Capstone Photography set up to get out information about the case and to collect donations to help pay their legal fees http://www.endpatentabuse.com/

[flamin lib]

1. . . . and another one bites the dust . . . nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Rec...important info. n/t

[Schema Thing]

3. I hoped it would be Amazon

but this is good too.

[groundloop]

4. I haven't heard about Amazon ever enforcing their patent

I've read speculation that Amazon obtained their photography patent merely to protect themselves against patent trolls.

[Schema Thing]

5. hmm, could be. seems like it's past time for the patent office

to get a lot more disciplined.


But of course, that would take money.