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Patent owner balks at fee award, cites newly issued — and similar — patent

Posted by BernardSwiss on · 1 comment
Ars Technica; By Joe Mullin
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A New Jersey man named Michael Garofalo had a patent he claimed covered online contests, and used it to demand money from other small businesses. But when the Electronic Frontier Foundation came to the defense of a photographer targeted by Garofalo last year, Garofalo quickly dropped his case. Last month, he and his lawyers were ordered to pay $29,000 in legal fees. Now Garofalo, who owns the website Garfum.com, is asking for the fee smackdown to be reconsidered. His reasoning: since the US Patent and Trademark Office recently agreed to grant him another patent, nearly identical to the first, his case couldn't possibly be considered "exceptional."

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Comments (1)

This guy Garofalo is in NJ; almost seems like a plot out of an episode of The Sopranos. Maybe some OTHER high-end lawyers should look into any Rico Act-related extortion actvities arising from the per$on(s) responsible for hiring Garofalo's East TX lawyers.

2c

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