Posts Tagged: "harassment"

Eighth Circuit Overturns Injunction for Harassment Allegedly Inspired by Patent Troll Rhetoric

On March 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a ruling in Tumey v. Mycroft AI, Inc. in which the appellate court overturned the Western District of Missouri’s grant of injunctive relief to Tumey, a patent attorney representing a plaintiff asserting patent claims against Mycroft. The Eighth Circuit found that Tumey had not met the requisite standard of proof to show that Mycroft had engaged in cyber attacks and harassing phone calls targeting Tumey and his family to support injunctive relief. The appellate court also remanded the case with instructions to reassign the case to a different district court judge.

Steve Brachmann

March 10, 2022

PTAB refuses to institute harassing IPR challenges against Finjan

Recently the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board) at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied institution in two separate inter partes review (IPR) challenges. Both IPR petitions were filed by Blue Coat Systems, LLC, against Finjan, Inc. In both instances the Board found that the Blue Coat IPR petitions were harassing and denied institution… These two decisions could mark a turning point in the maturation of the Board. At least several patent owners, including Finjan, are routinely subject to serial, harassing IPR challenges. The Patent Office doing something about harassing IPR challenges is long overdue.

Gene Quinn

February 1, 2017

FTC Goes After Jerk.com for Online Harassment of Kids

On April 17, 2013, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an Order Denying Petition to Quash Civil Investigative Demand in the Matter of Jerk, LLC. This means that an investigation started by the FTC will now proceed and Jerk.com will either need to challenge the FTC in court or they will need to turn over the requested files and information. The hammer seems to be coming down on Jerk.com, which should make an awful lot of tormented, harassed and cyber-bullied people quite happy.

Gene Quinn

April 29, 2013

Jerk.com: Who to Contact to Get Removed

Jerk.com isn’t the worst website on the Internet by a long shot, but the arrogance with which the site is operated and seems to flagrantly disregard copyright laws is astounding. If you are going to use a DMCA Takedown Notice you should be certain that you are the copyright owner. If you are in the picture that Jerk.com uses the copyright owner would be the photographer unless you specifically obtained the underlying copyrights by assignment. So the person who should send the DMCA Takedown Notice is the copyright owner. Alternatively, have the person who took the copyright assign any and all copyrights to you before you send the DMCA Takedown Notice. This can easily be achieved by a basic copyright assignment.

Gene Quinn

January 18, 2013

Jerk.com – Dealing with Online Harassment & Cyberbullying

Jerk.com is perhaps the most abusive and offensive website on the Internet. In addition to encouraging the voting on whether people are jerks they allow the most vile commentary to be published. I can’t think of anything else to call this other than cyber bullying. Not only are they engaging in widespread harassment of unsuspecting, innocent and helpless individuals — INCLUDING CHILDREN — but they are also engaged in widespread copyright infringement.

Gene Quinn

April 16, 2012