Patently Obvious is reporting that WDP was granted a summary judgment
(meaning the judge threw the case out of court) in the SP patent case:

http://patentlaw.typepad.com/patent/...all_paten.html

The judge ruled that the SP didn't have properly name the inventors,
because they left out a one Dr. Hensel, who the court has determined is
the inventor of the electronics, a vital element of all the claims in
question. (Claims as in the patent claims, not the lawsuit.) They
never paid Hensel for this work, and he never signed any sort of
agreement that they had the rights to his intelectual property. The
judge is ordering the USPTO to add him to the patent, which means he
(Hensel) will have to agree to EVERYTHING in regards to the patent as
half-owner.

The PATENT is still alive, but all the current suits that assert that SP
is the sole owner of the patent are now dead in the water. I think that
SP can add Hensel as a party, if he agrees, and refile the suits. Of
course, if Hensel is smart, he'll just go around SP, make his own
(substantially smaller) settlement and screw them over in a large way.

--
Phelps <http://www.donotremove.net>
"Bury me with all my stuff, because you know that it is mine."
-- Master Shake's Suicide Note, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force"

Looks like SP got the worst of all worlds. Now they won't have money from a
patent OR royalties or maybe even permission to use a royalty free firing
system. Wonder if they will have to re-imburse the smaller companies they
tried to screw? Also, now that the Gardner's have opened the Pandora's box,
we will have to wait and see what WDP does with this ruling and possible
patent rights. VERY interesting developments.

Jose



"Phelps" <phelpscatcher@attbi.com> wrote in message
newshelpscatcher-73809D.12214631082004@netnews.comcast.net...
> Patently Obvious is reporting that WDP was granted a summary judgment
> (meaning the judge threw the case out of court) in the SP patent case:
>
> http://patentlaw.typepad.com/patent/...all_paten.html
>
> The judge ruled that the SP didn't have properly name the inventors,
> because they left out a one Dr. Hensel, who the court has determined is
> the inventor of the electronics, a vital element of all the claims in
> question. (Claims as in the patent claims, not the lawsuit.) They
> never paid Hensel for this work, and he never signed any sort of
> agreement that they had the rights to his intelectual property. The
> judge is ordering the USPTO to add him to the patent, which means he
> (Hensel) will have to agree to EVERYTHING in regards to the patent as
> half-owner.
>
> The PATENT is still alive, but all the current suits that assert that SP
> is the sole owner of the patent are now dead in the water. I think that
> SP can add Hensel as a party, if he agrees, and refile the suits. Of
> course, if Hensel is smart, he'll just go around SP, make his own
> (substantially smaller) settlement and screw them over in a large way.
>
> --
> Phelps <http://www.donotremove.net>
> "Bury me with all my stuff, because you know that it is mine."
> -- Master Shake's Suicide Note, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force"