Global Patent Holdings' JPEG Patent: Back to Reexamination

An anonymous third-party requester,* represented by attorney Vernon Francissen of Chicago (Ray Niro's next-door neighbor!), has filed a request for ex parte reexamination of the just-reexamined claim 17 of Global Patent Holdings' U.S. Patent 5,253,341, the JPEG-on-a-website patent. You can download the request, look at it yourself, copy it as an exhibit for your answer and/or other pleadings, here (very big file, please be patient while it loads). The request suggests 19 new substantial questions of patentability, 3 involving anticipation and 16 involving obviousness.

Of course, the best part of the reexamination request is the citation of this blog! See Request at 15-16 & nn. 22-24. Now, this isn't the holy grail of legal journalism, an acknowledgement from Linda Greenhouse or Nina Totenberg (like that's going to happen), but this may be even better. I actually haven't reviewed the entire 61-page request that closely yet, but wanted to get the news before you read a puff piece about it in the Chicago Tribune or ABA Journal. I can see the Trib's headline now: "Pesky Serial Infringers Dare to Challenge The Great and Almighty Niro in What Surely Will Be Futile Act of Desperation." Or, you can read the real news here (click on this link for all of my posts tagged "Global Patent Holdings" - especially good for those just tuning in who have no idea what I'm talking about - it's a patent, being asserted against the use of compressed data like a JPEG, on a website).

Now, who IS Global Patent Holdings? Simply put, it's what TechSearch became after it sold most of its assets to Acacia. TechSearch/GPH is Anthony O. Brown. And who is Mr. Brown? A lawyer, for one. According to this DePaul Law School publication (see page 22), Mr. Brown has a law degree from Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, and was an attorney-advisor with the SEC in Washington. Then he became a partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago. Brown made a $24 million deal with Acacia in January 2005, obtaining $5 million in cash, $17 million in Acacia stock, and a $2 million guarantee for two years of consulting. Here's a March 2001 Wall Street Journal article about TechSearch, quoting Brown and his attorney, Ray Niro.

More to come, I'm sure.

TT

* It wasn't me, I swear.