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June 19, 2009

Unspooled

Emsat has a patent enforcement campaign against wireless providers such as Sprint Nextel, Verizon, Alltel, AT&T and T-Mobile. The claimed technology is an FCC requirement: determining the location of cell phones, one (the required) use being for emergency response networks. Sprint prompted a reexamination, and won a stay on that basis. In their case, AT&T and T-Mobile sought a stay for the same reason, expressing confidence: "It is highly likely that the re-examination by the PTO of the patents-in-suit will substantially narrow or even eliminate the issues confronting the parties and court in the instant cases." "Highly likely" turned to mush. The PTO balked at the reexam, for all but a few claims not asserted. Emsat had been so confidence that it hadn't even opposed the stay. Sometimes silence is golden.

The patents in suit: 5,946,611; 6,324,404; 6,847,822; and 7,289,763, all titled "Cellular telephone system that uses position of a mobile unit to make call management decisions."

Posted by Patent Hawk at June 19, 2009 2:27 PM | Litigation

Comments

What does "balked at the Reexam" mean? Sometimes your posts compromise too much clarity for the sake of sardonity.

Posted by: Defector at June 19, 2009 3:20 PM

It means that the pto told them no, they would not reexam the claims that the party was hoping would get reexamed.

Posted by: 6000 at June 19, 2009 3:52 PM

Defector,

Balk is a 15th century word meaning "to stop short and refuse to proceed."

Sardonity is not a word at all, but sardonicism is.

Thanks for reading. If nothing else, the Patent Prospector offers you some hope of better English. Please feel free to consult a dictionary as needed, because I am by no means finished using hoary four-letter words.

6000, thanks for the assist.

Posted by: Patent Hawk at June 19, 2009 11:21 PM

Better to use a non-word that everyone understands than use an actual word that obfuscates.

Posted by: Defector at June 22, 2009 3:35 PM

Defector,

Thanks for whining.

You may want to consider that this isn't a blog for you to read. Your indication of unwillingless to learn even simple words isn't going to lend enjoyment to reading here. I like words, and my style is to use language colorfully, often preferring a less mundane term, a dash of lexical spice.

Posted by: Patent Hawk at June 22, 2009 4:10 PM