“Dear piece of shit…” Life360 CEO sends a refreshingly direct response to a patent troll by Paul Carr.
From the post:
Tale as old as time. Now that family social network Life360 is firmly established in the big leagues — with 33m registered families, and having raised $50m last week from ADT — it was inevitable that the patent trolls would come calling.
But where most CEOs are happy to let their lawyers set the tone of how they respond, Life360′s Chris Hulls has a more, uh, refreshing approach.
When Hulls received a letter from attorney acting for Florida-based Advanced Ground Information Systems, inviting Life360 to “discuss” a “patent licensing agreement” for what AGIS claims is its pre-existing patent for displaying markers of people on a map, he decided to bypass his own attorneys and instead send an email reply straight out of David Mamet…
Dear Piece of Shit,…
Paul’s account of the demand by a patent troll, Advanced Ground Information Systems and the response of Life360 CEO Chris Hull is a masterpiece!
But it left me wondering, ok, so Life360 is stepping up to the plate, is there anything the rest of us can do other than cheer?
Not to discount the value of cheering but cheering is less filling and less satisfying than taking action.
The full complaint is here and the “Dear Piece of Shit” response appears in paragraph 11 of the compliant. The fact finder will be able to conclude that the “Dear Piece of Shit” response was sent, whether the court will take evidence on the plaintiff being a “piece of shit” remains unclear.
Let’s think about how to support Life360 as social network/graph people.
First, we all know about the six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Assuming that is generally true, that means someone reading this blog post is six degrees or less away from someone who is acting for or on behalf of Advanced Ground Information Systems (AGIS). Yes?
From the complaint we can identity the following people for AGIS:
- Malcolm K. “Cap” Beyer, Jr. (paragraph 9 of the complaint)
- Ury Fischer, Florida Bar No. 048534, E-mail: ufischer@lottfischer.com
- Adam Diamond, Florida Bar No. 091008, E-mail: adiamond@lottfischer.com
- Mark A. Hannemann, New York Bar No. 2770709, E-mail: mhannemann@kenyon.com
- Thomas Makin, New York Bar No. 3953841, E-mail: tmakin@kenyon.com
- Matthew Berkowitz, New York Bar No. 4397899, E-mail: mberkowitz@kenyon.com
- Rose Cordero Prey. New York Bar No. 4326591, E-mail: rcordero@kenyon.com
- Anne Elise Li, New York Bar No. 4480497, E-mail: ali@kenyon.com
- Vincent Rubino, III, New York Bar No. 4557435, E-mail: vrubino@kenyon.com
Everyone with a “Bar No” is counsel for AGIS.
All that information appears in the public record of the pleadings filed on behalf of AGIS.
What isn’t known is who else works for AGIS?
Or, who had connections to people who work for AGIS?
Obviously no one should contact or harass anyone in connection with a pending lawsuit, civil or criminal.
On the other hand, everyone within six degrees of separation of those acting on behalf of AGIS, retain their freedom of association rights.
Or should I say, their freedom of disassociation rights? Much in the same way that were exercised concerning J. Bruce Ismay.
The USPTO, which recently issued a patent for taking a photograph against a white background, isn’t going to help fix the patent system.
Lawyers seeking:
C. An award to Plaintiff of the damages to which it is entitled under at least 35 U.S.C. § 284 for Defendant’s past infringement and any continuing or future infringement, including both compensatory damages and treble damages for defendants’ willful infringement;
D. A judgment and order requiring defendants to pay the costs of this action (including all disbursements), as well as attorneys’ fees;
aren’t going to fix the patent system.
Lawyers advising victims of patent troll litigation aren’t going to fix the patent system because settling is cheaper. It’s just a question of which costs more money, settlements or litigation? Understandable but that leaves trolls to harass others.
If anyone is going to fix it, it will have to be victims like Life360 along with the lawful support of all non-trolls in the IP universe.
PS: If you have legal analysis or evidence that would be relevant to invalidation of the patents in question, please don’t hesitate to speak up.