Preliminary ruling against Mailblocks

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Jonathan Weinberg <weinberg () mail msen com>
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 13:06:46 -0400
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Preliminary ruling against Mailblocks

    I don't think anyone has noted here that a federal district court, back
on 
June 9, issued a preliminary ruling in the Mailblocks v. Spam Arrest patent
infringement suit.  Judge Coughenour said the patent was probably invalid,
on the ground that challenge-response technology was obvious when the
patent issued; the systems described in the patents weren't significantly
different from those described in articles back in 1992 and 1996.  He
therefore declined to issue a preliminary injunction against Spam Arrest,
and he stayed the entire action pending a decision by the Panel on
Multidistrict Litigation whether all of Mailblocks's lawsuits (against
various defendants) should be consolidated into a single proceeding.  (If
that happens, then all of the suits can be dismissed together, in one swell
foop.)

Jon


Jonathan Weinberg
Professor of Law, Wayne State University
weinberg () msen com


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