Marvell Lawsuit: Don't Worry, It Gets Worse [View article]
Mark, I am a lawyer so dive in. I can tell you that the Appellate Court is going to be put into a very uncomfortable position by the District Court. Patents are not generally State Jurisdictions they are Federal and tried in Patent Courts for a very good reason. She thinks she is trying a diversity case. Almost never are Defendants forced venue in Plaintiff's home turf unless extreme hardship can be shown. CMU is not even a manufacturer. How is that hardship for them? They had no out of pocket for the original patent which was a Federal Grant. They are patent trolls nothing more. Patent Court judges are members of the patent bar generally and aren't clueless about the intent of the law. That's the issue here the intent of patent law is not to treat it like a tort case.
Here she barred Marvel from using their own patents which expressly were awarded as work arounds for the CMU patent which they felt could not be built in silicon by present technology. They were awarded the patents in the face of the CMU patents.
So what does this judge do? She bars the use of Marvel patents for use on their defense. The fact that they were awarded the patents is enough to shatter the punitive damage claim of willful intent. But she was treating it like a tort defense of past behavior as a defense to present behavior. This judge blew it.
I have read all the court docs where were available and with each one, I find the decisions made to be off the wall and anything but impartial.
I am talking to you a layman but I am trying to drive home a point, that the intent of the law in Patents, in spite of the errant Apple Samsung colossal bizarre judgment which appears to be a dangerous new shift of patent law morphing into tort law, is that patents are not broadly interpreted and over time just like cellulose, they fade in their importance as the technology marches forward.
In terms of damages, this case was completely botched. I have cited case law but you have decided not to engage it. But here is an example of CMU that makes nothing. They have two theoretical software patents to which they look to two claims, one in each that they think are enforceable against hardware. I am telling you that is not the way it works. This judge didn't know her stuff and from what I can see, marched out on her own and avoided all case law on the subject matter.
We have a horrific situation here where a novice judge pranced out and gave rulings like she was trying a slip and fall injury. In her first case, she essentially finds grounds for the LARGEST INFRINGEMENT AWARD IN GLOBAL HISTORY. Put that in your pipe and smoke it; it smells like stupid to patent lawyers and to other judges. Further, she has postponed her deliberations until March or whenever, fully aware of the hardship she is causing the Defendant. The reason is that she doesn't know patent law and is trying to buy some time to figure out how she is going to deal with the mess she created.
This case will not stand and there are a plethora of legal reasons why it will fail de novo. The judge can scramble all she wants, those objections were motioned in her Court and she ruled stupidly and consistently in favor of the local plaintiff. This is why venue is rarely given to plaintiff. The Courts bend toward the Defendant in all law, establishing the most favorable interpretation to the Defendants.
The plaintiff can sue anybody, even you. They can hail you into court and force you to defend yourself. That is a lot of power against you. The Courts balance this by favoring the Defendant by establishing the most favorable interpretation of the law. This judge did the opposite.
If you look at the patent blogs, you will see many emphatic posts like mine. The blogs are buzzing and it is an unfavorable wind heading at this case. I don't see any blogs defending the judge. I seem bile at this Court.
There are three branches of law which are the most intelligent: Contracts, Patent, and Tax. This case took patent law into the gutter with the ambulance chasers. Patent courts are reeling by this judge's conduct. The experiment failed in a big way. She was way over her head.
You can agree or disagree with me but you know what... we are going to have an answer. I can hardly wait to read her published opinion.
And I also think I read that you don't think laches is a defense. But I guarantee it is a great defense for old patents. Here we have CMU sitting by watching Marvel supposedly developing infringing hardware and saying nothing. In fact they don't say a thing until long after not a single device made by Marvel could constitute a claim of any kind. So you see, CMU looks like a troll, acts like a troll, doesn't manufacture a damn thing. Laches is a very suitable defense for a troll that sits back and watches then advantages a claim. A good judge would see right through CMU. But CMU had their own local judge in their vest pocket.
This action is one of the most noxious patent cases in history. Marvel had decent counsel except when dealing with the jury instructions however, the jury instructions are so patently flawed that it makes the trial judge look like an idiot which makes the Appellate Court puke on their shoes.
Marvell Lawsuit: Don't Worry, It Gets Worse [View article]
I wanted to point today to the Market value concept by referencing LaserDynamics Inc. v. Quanta Computers, 694 F.3d 51, 67 Fed. Cir. 2012. In this case LaserDynamics rejected the Market value concept. The Court in LaserDynamics, disapproved the use of the total market value rule, when total values 'only served to make a patentee's proffered damages amount appear modest by comparison, and to artificially inflate the jury's damages calculation.' (Id. at 68) (quoting Uniloc, 632 F.3d at 1319-20)"
Built into this idea is the basic question of CMU acting as a patent troll. They manufacture nothing. Additionally, these patents of which the so-called infringed claims arose were from a Gov grant so CMU has no claim to out of pocket development costs so for them to get away with this is astonishing. But put a stupid ignorant judge on her first patent case and what do you get.... THE LARGEST POTENTIAL PATENT INFRINGEMENT AWARD IN GLOBAL HISTORY!
Nora Barry Fisher also struck any evidence of Marvel using their patent workarounds as a defense in the case. I have never heard of this. Striking a defendant's evidence for defense is a total abrogation of due process. The Defendant is allowed to present any evidence as long as it does not confuse the jury [which in this case may apply to telling the story of Goldilocks], or constituted a redundant waste of time etc etc. But it is considered reprehensible court conduct in a patent case to disallow patents that directly refute the infringement claims by actual awarded patents. This is simply the wost patent case I have ever seen. This judge had her head parked far up to pull this kind stuff in a US District Court. It happens because some judges don't know the law. Many are Gov employee rent collectors that were unsuccessful lawyers. So where do unsuccessful lawyers go? They teach or they become judges or they work for the Gov. There you have it.
You can bet on this, the Appellate Court is now looking over this Judge's shoulders on this verdict. I submit that when the patent community gets through analyzing this case, the Appellate brief will lambast the District Court as fully incompetent giving an avalanche of case law to force a de novo review and total rejection of the case. It could order the case back to the District Court which will fry the Appellate Court's gizzard. Once they sniff this case and smell the judicial incompetence, they may even change the venue to a patent court or toss the case entirely.
My opinion is they will do the unusual and toss the case. The fact that this was an experimental District Court case hearing a patent case that has resulted in such a SNAFU the Court itself will demolish this case as a total abrogation of due process. Since they protect their own, they will find some narrow technical way to reject the case then they will either move it themselves to a different jurisdictions or will reject the whole without prejudice allowing CMU if they dare to amend their complaint for another court.
Judicial incompetence is a taint on the entire court system. The Western District of PA is an uninspired Court to begin with so it is one of the weakest Districts for good law. Expect the Appellate Court to act dramatically.
Marvell Lawsuit: Don't Worry, It Gets Worse [View article]
Absurd arguments; where do I begin? How about the law and procedure?
1) This case was a district court experimental jurisdiction by a Female Judge that never tired a patent case, never took a course in patent law, did not possess a scientific background sufficient to be a member of the patent bar. And what was the result? It was essentially the largest potential patent infringement award in global history! ON HER FIRST PATENT CASE EVER... NOTHING LIKE STARTING OUT BIG! This is akin to the Florida tobacco tort cases ripped to shreds in the Appellate courts.
2) Oh dear... we are not talking about patent infringement but two "Claims" one in each patent. The embodiment of a patent is claims. Claims unto themselves are not... ARE NOT PATENTS!!!! Further, these were old software patents NOT HARDWARE IN ANY SHAPE MANNER OR FORM!
3) MARVEL was granted a dozen US patents that expressly were workaounds of the so called CMU patents! So of course MARVEL was aware of the Patents and was GRANTED patent work arounds!!!!!!!
4) Jury instruction which was used by this Judge and ruled valid by her stated that if the Jury found that MARVEL "knew" about the CMU patents then this would qualify as willful intent and subject MARVEL to treble damages. My God what was this knot head judge thinking? Knowledge alone was NEVER disputed. Knowledge alone is NEVER grounds for treble damages and NEVER stands for willful intent. This woman thought she was trying a tort case and trying to apply the gross negligence standard to a patent case. The appellate court will look at this jury instruction and be shocked.
5) Complex patent case and no court master appointed.
6) Venue declined from California and placed in Western PA where CMU was located.
7) Jury bias. A number of jury members had associations directly or indirectly with CMU.
8) CMU was "awarded" the patent via a federal grant. So I would love to know how CMU classifies its "damages" when it had NO OUT OF POCKET AT ALL for the development of the patent. Insane
9) Old patents and old claims are NEVER given such broad ruleage in a court. In fact, it is regarded at bad form in Patent law to assume any claim to prior art especially a theoretical claim, has any merit in a physical hardware construction. It is akin to saying, that someone can patent the idea of opening a door as a process then apply it to a door's construction.
This case is so ridiculous and so flawed that it will never stand.
Further, I noted in reading the posts I noticed that many are trying to apply tort standards to patent law. Patent law is much closer to contract law with expectation damages. There is no possibility that the CMU patent could have even applied to silicon design in that the technology not only did not exist but as Marvel has demonstrated, doesn't even exist today! Nobody can patent anything that is so theoretical that it could encompass all future inventions which were impossible at the time the patent was awarded. Broad claims to theoretical patents are almost uniformly rejected when applied to hardware. It is apples and oranges.
I am unfamiliar with the "Georgia Pacific" standard. There is no such standard to determine damages. GP is a novel method, not a standard at all and certainly NEVER applicable to a semiconductor chip. BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559 (1996) expressly limits punitive damages as a violation of substantive due process.
In my estimation only Judge Ito could have botched this case more than the triple whammy that tried this case in Western PA in front of a minority jury composed of a majority of high school drop outs. This case was nothing shy of a total violation of substantive due process at the hands of an ignorant Court.
This case will be chopped apart in appeals and narrowed and blown away if it gets tried in a patent court.
When it comes to Marvel, buy the stock with both hands!
Loss In Patent Case Turns Marvell Technology Into Dead Money [View article]
Relax. In fact, I would be buying. This patent case, aside from being incompetent in virtually every aspect is an embarrassment to the Federal Courts.
Right off the top the Judge, The triple named Nora Barry Fisher of the Western District of Pennsylvania, had never tried a patent case. She has no engineering background, no patient experience and no courtroom patent experience. This case was set up as an "Experimental Venue" to handle patent case overloads. So right out the gate on her first case, there is a judgment of 1.17 billion with a possible claim of treble damages by the high school drop-out jury.
It gets worse. Of the two patents in question, both software patents. CMU claims ownership even though these patents derived from a Federal Grant many years ago. By today's standards, these patents are weak, overly broad and should not be interpreted except in the confines of the software patents which have long since been replaced. Instead, this court of idiots applied software to the silicon hardware.
It gets worse. During the case Marvel, demonstrated a dozen other patents which they developed as work-arounds of the CMU patents and they were rewarded patents on that basis! Further, Marvel is not using any CMU patents in any of its present hardware.
The infringement is not over the patents but over two claims one in each of the patents. This is almost akin to CMU claiming they can patent 1+1 = 2 because it was a claim used in a software patent. So from that day forward, 1+ 1 = 2 would be a breached claim of their patent even if the invention was hardware not software. Its absurd.
Plaintiff's Attorney was being shut down in every motion from Venue to Summary Judgment so they were in the midst of a Pittsburgh styled Jury with a Pittsburgh Plaintiff CMU! This gives new meaning to the home court advantage and is a breach of the right of Venue.
Then we get to the meat of it... could the jury understand the patent. Don't make me laugh. I will leave you to read the patent claims for yourself, then imagine a minority jury of mostly drop outs trying to figure this one out!
But that didn't stop the judge from entering jury orders that led to the claim of treble damages JUST BY A FINDING THAT MARVEL KNEW about the CMU patents prior to products that are claimed as infringing. To that moron judge... KNOWLEDGE ALONE OF SOME PRIOR ART IS NOT INFRINGEMENT LET ALONE WILLFUL INFRINGEMENT! God I hate dumb female judges!
This case will fold on Appeal. It is an embarrassment to the Court and the Appellant court will find a way to either nullify the judgment or will order a new trial that will have a very different outcome.
This case will eventually be studied in law schools as the perfect storm of incompetence. It is astonishing that the Court would think for a minute they were qualified to handle a highly technical case without any background in patent law or patents. Instead they have converted patent law into some kind of Tort law claiming gross negligence as a mere matter of knowledge of a prior arts existence. That is so stupid that this judge should be fired in disgrace. I am certain the Appellate will knock this down and rebuke the trial court.
The Apple Samsung case is another wild hair case and Apple will rue the day they tangled with Samsung. And when all is said and done, Apple will end up with nothing but a lot of legal expenses.
Apple too played the odds and the history of adventurism in patent courts generally results in a narrowing of the claims and even knock outs of the patent's as infringing on prior art. What every patent applicant knows is that there are always obscure claims that can nullify claims and reduce a patent to ash.
I am a buyer of Marvel. This patent judgement will not stand.
You liberals are always looking for a demon. MLM is the demon of the hour. We have hedge funds like Einhorn and Ackman making surprise public announcements at options expiration... I wonder who's more moral the MLM or these guys.
MLM that makes and distributes products is just a means of marketing products. Nobody can tell me that the products are overpriced... compared to what? The Walmart Great Value private marketing line?
I have no shares of MLMs, but I certainly don't like the demonization of them. Many cosmetic companies sell this way in order to demonstrate their products. Who's to say what price cosmetics should be sold for. What is this stuff anyway... grease paint. So They add the magic of marketing and fancy packaging.
I hate when I read article like this with somebody preaching the morals of business as they see it. These companies reward people who build their own distribution networks. That takes work and its no different than building a chain of stores like GNC. You can get cheaper products than GNC sells. But you don't see Ackman and Einhorn picketing the front door of some franchise store.
What is more crooked... an MLM or a hedge fund taking 2% and 20% claiming the 2% is income and the 20% is capital gains?
Every once in a while hedges go after MLMs while stuffing the puts then they go away. It is a cheap way to make some money that they don't have to disclose until after the fact. Talk about unethical conduct. You certainly have seen it from Einhorn and Ackman. Pretty disgusting.
Why Iron Ore Is Going To Be Great In 2013 [View article]
Ramping up capacity means lower margins longer term. All the stimulus in the world driven to Gov bloat and Gov infrastructure isn't going to help steel long term. It will ultimately reduce margins and after the sugar charge is over, their will be massive over capacity and no private sector left to sop up the extra capacity.
Verso Paper: A Lotto Ticket That Might Pay Off [View article]
Thanks for the analysis but not a chance. This paper company went public because it was in decline. The market read that correctly. This is a dying business.
What could they do with this company? They could shift to packaging materials but how would they fund that? Too much debt. This one dies in a year.
Investors Chase Neuralstem On Successful Phase I Trial [View article]
I think this company is a total scam. The phase one trial is merely safety unless something big happens that changes outcomes. That is not the case here. The many hyped articles about paralyzed mice walking is a great example or giving a testimonial on a patient that claims to be showing improvement.
Most of these biotech firms are complete scams and they are the worst kind of scam hyping the public with false hope over a fatal disease like ALS. Feeding off of someone's misery takes a real SOB.
Talk Of Special Dividend And Other Positives Could Power Microsoft Higher [View article]
Microsoft is absurdly undervalued. My estimate is $43 a share. Much of the sluggishness comes from Ballmer because microsoft no longer fights for market share it just cruises on its bigness.
Surface however is a proper move forward. Its pricy but the software integration will allow licensing of the technology and I think tablets and the cloud will eventually dominate.
Further, the OS on a chip concept helps MSFT get paid. I also see the rise of INTC and MSFT minus HP as the tech leaders going forward. INTC needs to scrap its diversity idiocy and go back to a fully nerd run and controlled operation. They have way too many execubtches lauding power over the more intelligent nerds; nerds don't like that and they have moved to smaller companies that now compete with INTC. This just proves that diversity is not a strength but a sure fire way to fall flat on your tech face.
I also think that MSFT is a great long term investment because eventually they will get rid of Ballmer the place holder and somebody with a brain will come in and start spinning divisions to the shareholders. MSFT right now is a bureaucratic mess with Gates and his uberliberal politics pushing this diversity krap. As for Africa, the more people Gates saves from the Mosquito the more that die of starvation and HIV. Liberal meddling shows Gates is not a real nerd but a poser. He needs to disappear and take his foundation away and clear out of microsoft.
Quit moralizing will you. Goldman is a public company and has plenty of dark pools. The purpose of companies in the realm is market liquidity not training wheels for mom and pop investors.
The future is high frequency trading. It brings the bid and asked to a razor's edge. It reduces the cost of transactions for all and if you think global markets are not ready to explode with massive market activity you are living under a rock. American traders are the undisputed best in the world and they don't need supervision from a lot of luddites that want life to be lived at a slower pace. The fast pace suits many of us just fine. We want our orders filled when filed. High frequency platforms put the individual on a much more even footing.
I am Cash McCall and you are nails down correct. There should be a lot more suitors including Goldman. The fast GETCO deal is a dead giveaway.
My valuation is that KCG is worth $6 a share at book. Knight is recovering from stupidity and they had to dilute to pay that tuition. But the company remains intact but now better for the mishap. Big Blue has been in fixing the software and putting in the right alarms. So the company is better than before.
For GETCO this is a backdoor IPO and that is worth plenty. One of the things the moronic talking heads never address is the carryover tax loss of 400 million to the suitor. This is not a negative... this is cash money to the suitor and needs to be extracted from any deal's value. It covers the debt for any company that has a large taxible income. It is nearly a free company when included in the analysis.
I deal in M&A structures and M&A tax matters. I can tell you that this deal if rushed through is a windfall. But if the deal were sweetened a bit for the Shares say to $5 or a stock equivalent in the KCG - GETCO company, it would be a great deal for all. So the preliminary bid by GETCO is in the right direction.
TD Ameritrade has $600 million in income, for a stock trade and cash to the enterprise, that deal would be golden too.
The Grasso dark pool is a scam deal. Its dirty and involves a bribe of sorts to give Joyce and the board, a new company and new IPO. It is a total abrogation of the shares and is a filthy deal. I figured as much from Grasso and his dark pool. The Grasso deal will result in a pierce the corporate shell styled lawsuit like an ice berg ripping opened the Titanic. It is a foul deal. To make that fly, Grasso will have to come up with $10 a share cash and participation in the new IPO. Blackrock and LUK and Jefferies are not stupid.
The analyst valuation are all wrong. KCG is a business that is highly regulated. There is is no way any company could be started in this area, the cost of admission is too high. So that has to be figured into the value as intrinsic.
Assume that KCG prior to the accident had a FVM of $15. With a 60% dilution the present FMV is $6. With the strong hand holders, that FMV + intrinsics is easily $10. So that is where the Grasso deal would BEGIN! But this causes some tax problems for KCG speculators due to taxes. None of the strong hands want that kind of tax liability so Grasso should shell the assets in an existing company and issue shares of the shell which would then be purchased by the company forming the IPO. Without this kind of planning, the Grasso deal is an insult.
I think GS needs to roll in the tanks. This is a perfect property for them plus it has a mortgage backed securities business in place.
Goldman could use stock to buy the whole mess with virtually no cost to the shares and take immediate advantage of the tax deduction. It is a perfect fit for the Goldman operation. Though if I were Goldman, I would try to sweep up GETCO in the same deal. That is the perfect deal. The timing couldn't be better. I am absolutely certain that Goldman has been tinkering with the numbers in the back room and you gotta know a few of the whale masters are salivating.
I do not understand TD Americatrade's position. They should be launching forward. They have nothing to lose since they already have a big stake. Combining with GETCO is not enough, they need better value.
GETCO is most certainly on the right track and I would expect a much better offer coming on the table which offers the shares a valuable stock holding going forward. But it will have to be a lot sweeter deal for the shares. Yet this one could be structured to deliver shares worth $10 with a transfer of assets rather than cash for shares. I have no idea why GETCO was even contemplating cash for shares; that's a dumb deal for the strong hands. GETCO can buy back shares and reduce the float that way. That way the stock has a built in bottom and a fantastic future potential.
GETCO is a little green at this process. But what they need to contemplate is the cost of an IPO v. the cost of a backdoor IPO. With the merger, they get the best of all worlds, up and running public company that is well capitalized with a massive strong hands share base. That's really valuable.
I believe you have grossly underestimated the earning potential of this company as well as the ease with which they got the capital they needed when they needed it. Those players know the true value of the operation.
This company suffered a singular event tied to the continuation of other computer trading issues. But that's life, some space shuttle crews were lost and some Astronauts in the Apollo program.
The great advantage of this company is the unassailable difficulty of any other company climbing the startup cost wall to bring to the table what Knight already has in place. I have read a remarkable number of stupid comments here but the reality is that computer trading is not going away, if anything it is going to expand and Knight will in all likelihood lead the way.
They have already hired Big Blue to do a total software analysis and fix. Knight is going to come out of this with the best software in the industry. Out of this accident, Knight will have done a much superior analysis of the problem by far than anyone in the industry. Other companies are just presuming safety but in the Future, Knight will be sought after because It dug deeply and fixed the problem and will have superior load balanced system that nobody else will have.
This article like many on seeking alpha, has the author on the right path but his analysis on earning potential is completely flawed. This is a hugely complex business and it is a variable closed shop to competition. Knight is not too big to fail but it is too important in this narrow field such that private capital smart money was making offers before the company made solicitations.
I predict the value of this stock at 8 to 10 a share by Dec. Volumes will be picking up substantially due to the Fed's extraordinary "OPENED ENDED" QE policy. Knight will fix the software while the SEC will still fumble over the flash crash. Eventually the smartest and biggest money will will want to be working with Knight who will have by far and away the best software in the industry.
I am glad people are using conventional analysis to measure this company but that is meaningless here because the expertise is what you want. Remember Dr. Debakey lost a number of patients on the operating room table before he became the best at complex aortic artery reconstruction. Years ago one of my cadavers, a former commercial pilot, had a full Dacron aorta from the heart to the bifurcated iliacs. Each vessel from the renal arteries to the subclavians was sewn into the Dacron.
There was simply no other surgeon or surgical team back then, other than DeBakey that had the skill set to pull this off.
Usually with a dissecting Aorta, you just clamp the Aorta with a "DeBakie", which is a big clamp and you work like heck under severe time constraints. But to put dacron all the way to the aortic valve, he had to stop the heart. He had the equipment, the skill sets and the team. Everybody else was groping in the dark.
Knight will have the skill set and the best software in the industry while the others grope around in the dark.
A short seller is not a stockholder. The shares are borrowed, they only possess custody and do not have any rights conferred that go to a regular long holder. They may not vote, may not receive dividend distributions and have ZERO rights to participate at a shareholder meeting including a conference call.
Your argument is flawed. A short seller is not a stockholder. The shares are borrowed, they only possess custody and do not have any rights conferred that go to a regular long holder. They may not vote, may not receive dividend distributions and have ZERO rights to participate at a shareholder meeting including a conference call.
I am telling you the law. Anyone that moves a stock in a material way through reckless negligence, omission, or knew or should have know that they could cause a material move, stands in for intent. has manipulated the stock so their conduct needs to be scrutinized.
Igor's article is spot on except that he politely asks the questions to Einhorn and I would sue Einhorn. Hedge fund manipulation is out of control. Just because they find subtle ways to smash stocks by merely asking questions doesn't make the manipulation less sinister. It is merely a means of skirting the intent of the law.
Trading is a privilege not a right. It is regulated to prevent manipulation. When Einhorn attacks a company he doesn't invite opinion, he just makes assumptions. In the case of Green Mountain, he made a huge math error that was picked up after the fact, after the damage was done.
In Commercial speech, truth in advertising is essential to protect consumers, the same requirement exists for attacking a product. You can't publish a report that says Coke causes brain tumors. To lean back and say it was just a benign opinion is not going to work in a Commercial setting. Coke could sue you.
I am not a shareholder in this company but the damage done by Einhorn without remorse or even explanatory comment, was so great and so material that the SEC must investigate. Einhorn is probably already under investigation for this because of some of his pat attacks on companies.
If he owned or bought or sold stock in this company prior to or after this manipulation, he could go to jail. So he's probably been advised by his lawyers to not speak.
His history is not squeaky clean, he has at lest one charge for insider trading in international markets.
You could do the same thing as he is doing, look at 10K s and devise a question about reporting. You could get onto Caps or Seeking Alpha and write an article like the guy that called NAT a ponzi scheme. You could short and make a lot of money. But you ought to be sued for it. Better than an article, you might get to make a conference call question and make the stock tumble.
Remember it is much easier to bring a stock down than make it go up. Remember the tylenol poisonings? People got killed with that one and the stock tanked. The killer bought puts and killed people randomly. Einhorn makes money shorting. Imagine how easy it is for him; he just asks a question or two and the stock tumbles. So that answers your idiotic rhetorical question. Einhorn is not just any short seller, so therefore he has a special duty to be very careful with what he does when he buys or sells stock or participates in any event that could cause a material damage to a company.
Marvell Lawsuit: Don't Worry, It Gets Worse [View article]
Here she barred Marvel from using their own patents which expressly were awarded as work arounds for the CMU patent which they felt could not be built in silicon by present technology. They were awarded the patents in the face of the CMU patents.
So what does this judge do? She bars the use of Marvel patents for use on their defense. The fact that they were awarded the patents is enough to shatter the punitive damage claim of willful intent. But she was treating it like a tort defense of past behavior as a defense to present behavior. This judge blew it.
I have read all the court docs where were available and with each one, I find the decisions made to be off the wall and anything but impartial.
I am talking to you a layman but I am trying to drive home a point, that the intent of the law in Patents, in spite of the errant Apple Samsung colossal bizarre judgment which appears to be a dangerous new shift of patent law morphing into tort law, is that patents are not broadly interpreted and over time just like cellulose, they fade in their importance as the technology marches forward.
In terms of damages, this case was completely botched. I have cited case law but you have decided not to engage it. But here is an example of CMU that makes nothing. They have two theoretical software patents to which they look to two claims, one in each that they think are enforceable against hardware. I am telling you that is not the way it works. This judge didn't know her stuff and from what I can see, marched out on her own and avoided all case law on the subject matter.
We have a horrific situation here where a novice judge pranced out and gave rulings like she was trying a slip and fall injury. In her first case, she essentially finds grounds for the LARGEST INFRINGEMENT AWARD IN GLOBAL HISTORY. Put that in your pipe and smoke it; it smells like stupid to patent lawyers and to other judges. Further, she has postponed her deliberations until March or whenever, fully aware of the hardship she is causing the Defendant. The reason is that she doesn't know patent law and is trying to buy some time to figure out how she is going to deal with the mess she created.
This case will not stand and there are a plethora of legal reasons why it will fail de novo. The judge can scramble all she wants, those objections were motioned in her Court and she ruled stupidly and consistently in favor of the local plaintiff. This is why venue is rarely given to plaintiff. The Courts bend toward the Defendant in all law, establishing the most favorable interpretation to the Defendants.
The plaintiff can sue anybody, even you. They can hail you into court and force you to defend yourself. That is a lot of power against you. The Courts balance this by favoring the Defendant by establishing the most favorable interpretation of the law. This judge did the opposite.
If you look at the patent blogs, you will see many emphatic posts like mine. The blogs are buzzing and it is an unfavorable wind heading at this case. I don't see any blogs defending the judge. I seem bile at this Court.
There are three branches of law which are the most intelligent: Contracts, Patent, and Tax. This case took patent law into the gutter with the ambulance chasers. Patent courts are reeling by this judge's conduct. The experiment failed in a big way. She was way over her head.
You can agree or disagree with me but you know what... we are going to have an answer. I can hardly wait to read her published opinion.
And I also think I read that you don't think laches is a defense. But I guarantee it is a great defense for old patents. Here we have CMU sitting by watching Marvel supposedly developing infringing hardware and saying nothing. In fact they don't say a thing until long after not a single device made by Marvel could constitute a claim of any kind. So you see, CMU looks like a troll, acts like a troll, doesn't manufacture a damn thing. Laches is a very suitable defense for a troll that sits back and watches then advantages a claim. A good judge would see right through CMU. But CMU had their own local judge in their vest pocket.
This action is one of the most noxious patent cases in history. Marvel had decent counsel except when dealing with the jury instructions however, the jury instructions are so patently flawed that it makes the trial judge look like an idiot which makes the Appellate Court puke on their shoes.
This case will be flushed.
Marvell Lawsuit: Don't Worry, It Gets Worse [View article]
Built into this idea is the basic question of CMU acting as a patent troll. They manufacture nothing. Additionally, these patents of which the so-called infringed claims arose were from a Gov grant so CMU has no claim to out of pocket development costs so for them to get away with this is astonishing. But put a stupid ignorant judge on her first patent case and what do you get.... THE LARGEST POTENTIAL PATENT INFRINGEMENT AWARD IN GLOBAL HISTORY!
Nora Barry Fisher also struck any evidence of Marvel using their patent workarounds as a defense in the case. I have never heard of this. Striking a defendant's evidence for defense is a total abrogation of due process. The Defendant is allowed to present any evidence as long as it does not confuse the jury [which in this case may apply to telling the story of Goldilocks], or constituted a redundant waste of time etc etc. But it is considered reprehensible court conduct in a patent case to disallow patents that directly refute the infringement claims by actual awarded patents. This is simply the wost patent case I have ever seen. This judge had her head parked far up to pull this kind stuff in a US District Court. It happens because some judges don't know the law. Many are Gov employee rent collectors that were unsuccessful lawyers. So where do unsuccessful lawyers go? They teach or they become judges or they work for the Gov. There you have it.
You can bet on this, the Appellate Court is now looking over this Judge's shoulders on this verdict. I submit that when the patent community gets through analyzing this case, the Appellate brief will lambast the District Court as fully incompetent giving an avalanche of case law to force a de novo review and total rejection of the case. It could order the case back to the District Court which will fry the Appellate Court's gizzard. Once they sniff this case and smell the judicial incompetence, they may even change the venue to a patent court or toss the case entirely.
My opinion is they will do the unusual and toss the case. The fact that this was an experimental District Court case hearing a patent case that has resulted in such a SNAFU the Court itself will demolish this case as a total abrogation of due process. Since they protect their own, they will find some narrow technical way to reject the case then they will either move it themselves to a different jurisdictions or will reject the whole without prejudice allowing CMU if they dare to amend their complaint for another court.
Judicial incompetence is a taint on the entire court system. The Western District of PA is an uninspired Court to begin with so it is one of the weakest Districts for good law. Expect the Appellate Court to act dramatically.
Marvell Lawsuit: Don't Worry, It Gets Worse [View article]
1) This case was a district court experimental jurisdiction by a Female Judge that never tired a patent case, never took a course in patent law, did not possess a scientific background sufficient to be a member of the patent bar. And what was the result? It was essentially the largest potential patent infringement award in global history! ON HER FIRST PATENT CASE EVER... NOTHING LIKE STARTING OUT BIG! This is akin to the Florida tobacco tort cases ripped to shreds in the Appellate courts.
2) Oh dear... we are not talking about patent infringement but two "Claims" one in each patent. The embodiment of a patent is claims. Claims unto themselves are not... ARE NOT PATENTS!!!!
Further, these were old software patents NOT HARDWARE IN ANY SHAPE MANNER OR FORM!
3) MARVEL was granted a dozen US patents that expressly were workaounds of the so called CMU patents! So of course MARVEL was aware of the Patents and was GRANTED patent work arounds!!!!!!!
4) Jury instruction which was used by this Judge and ruled valid by her stated that if the Jury found that MARVEL "knew" about the CMU patents then this would qualify as willful intent and subject MARVEL to treble damages. My God what was this knot head judge thinking? Knowledge alone was NEVER disputed. Knowledge alone is NEVER grounds for treble damages and NEVER stands for willful intent. This woman thought she was trying a tort case and trying to apply the gross negligence standard to a patent case. The appellate court will look at this jury instruction and be shocked.
5) Complex patent case and no court master appointed.
6) Venue declined from California and placed in Western PA where CMU was located.
7) Jury bias. A number of jury members had associations directly or indirectly with CMU.
8) CMU was "awarded" the patent via a federal grant. So I would love to know how CMU classifies its "damages" when it had NO OUT OF POCKET AT ALL for the development of the patent. Insane
9) Old patents and old claims are NEVER given such broad ruleage in a court. In fact, it is regarded at bad form in Patent law to assume any claim to prior art especially a theoretical claim, has any merit in a physical hardware construction. It is akin to saying, that someone can patent the idea of opening a door as a process then apply it to a door's construction.
This case is so ridiculous and so flawed that it will never stand.
Further, I noted in reading the posts I noticed that many are trying to apply tort standards to patent law. Patent law is much closer to contract law with expectation damages. There is no possibility that the CMU patent could have even applied to silicon design in that the technology not only did not exist but as Marvel has demonstrated, doesn't even exist today! Nobody can patent anything that is so theoretical that it could encompass all future inventions which were impossible at the time the patent was awarded. Broad claims to theoretical patents are almost uniformly rejected when applied to hardware. It is apples and oranges.
I am unfamiliar with the "Georgia Pacific" standard. There is no such standard to determine damages. GP is a novel method, not a standard at all and certainly NEVER applicable to a semiconductor chip. BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore, 517 U.S. 559 (1996)
expressly limits punitive damages as a violation of substantive due process.
In my estimation only Judge Ito could have botched this case more than the triple whammy that tried this case in Western PA in front of a minority jury composed of a majority of high school drop outs. This case was nothing shy of a total violation of substantive due process at the hands of an ignorant Court.
This case will be chopped apart in appeals and narrowed and blown away if it gets tried in a patent court.
When it comes to Marvel, buy the stock with both hands!
Loss In Patent Case Turns Marvell Technology Into Dead Money [View article]
Right off the top the Judge, The triple named Nora Barry Fisher of the Western District of Pennsylvania, had never tried a patent case. She has no engineering background, no patient experience and no courtroom patent experience. This case was set up as an "Experimental Venue" to handle patent case overloads. So right out the gate on her first case, there is a judgment of 1.17 billion with a possible claim of treble damages by the high school drop-out jury.
It gets worse. Of the two patents in question, both software patents. CMU claims ownership even though these patents derived from a Federal Grant many years ago. By today's standards, these patents are weak, overly broad and should not be interpreted except in the confines of the software patents which have long since been replaced. Instead, this court of idiots applied software to the silicon hardware.
It gets worse. During the case Marvel, demonstrated a dozen other patents which they developed as work-arounds of the CMU patents and they were rewarded patents on that basis! Further, Marvel is not using any CMU patents in any of its present hardware.
The infringement is not over the patents but over two claims one in each of the patents. This is almost akin to CMU claiming they can patent 1+1 = 2 because it was a claim used in a software patent. So from that day forward, 1+ 1 = 2 would be a breached claim of their patent even if the invention was hardware not software. Its absurd.
Plaintiff's Attorney was being shut down in every motion from Venue to Summary Judgment so they were in the midst of a Pittsburgh styled Jury with a Pittsburgh Plaintiff CMU! This gives new meaning to the home court advantage and is a breach of the right of Venue.
Then we get to the meat of it... could the jury understand the patent. Don't make me laugh. I will leave you to read the patent claims for yourself, then imagine a minority jury of mostly drop outs trying to figure this one out!
But that didn't stop the judge from entering jury orders that led to the claim of treble damages JUST BY A FINDING THAT MARVEL KNEW about the CMU patents prior to products that are claimed as infringing. To that moron judge... KNOWLEDGE ALONE OF SOME PRIOR ART IS NOT INFRINGEMENT LET ALONE WILLFUL INFRINGEMENT! God I hate dumb female judges!
This case will fold on Appeal. It is an embarrassment to the Court and the Appellant court will find a way to either nullify the judgment or will order a new trial that will have a very different outcome.
This case will eventually be studied in law schools as the perfect storm of incompetence. It is astonishing that the Court would think for a minute they were qualified to handle a highly technical case without any background in patent law or patents. Instead they have converted patent law into some kind of Tort law claiming gross negligence as a mere matter of knowledge of a prior arts existence. That is so stupid that this judge should be fired in disgrace. I am certain the Appellate will knock this down and rebuke the trial court.
The Apple Samsung case is another wild hair case and Apple will rue the day they tangled with Samsung. And when all is said and done, Apple will end up with nothing but a lot of legal expenses.
Apple too played the odds and the history of adventurism in patent courts generally results in a narrowing of the claims and even knock outs of the patent's as infringing on prior art. What every patent applicant knows is that there are always obscure claims that can nullify claims and reduce a patent to ash.
I am a buyer of Marvel. This patent judgement will not stand.
The 2 Faces Of Nu Skin [View article]
MLM that makes and distributes products is just a means of marketing products. Nobody can tell me that the products are overpriced... compared to what? The Walmart Great Value private marketing line?
I have no shares of MLMs, but I certainly don't like the demonization of them. Many cosmetic companies sell this way in order to demonstrate their products. Who's to say what price cosmetics should be sold for. What is this stuff anyway... grease paint. So They add the magic of marketing and fancy packaging.
I hate when I read article like this with somebody preaching the morals of business as they see it. These companies reward people who build their own distribution networks. That takes work and its no different than building a chain of stores like GNC. You can get cheaper products than GNC sells. But you don't see Ackman and Einhorn picketing the front door of some franchise store.
What is more crooked... an MLM or a hedge fund taking 2% and 20% claiming the 2% is income and the 20% is capital gains?
Every once in a while hedges go after MLMs while stuffing the puts then they go away. It is a cheap way to make some money that they don't have to disclose until after the fact. Talk about unethical conduct. You certainly have seen it from Einhorn and Ackman. Pretty disgusting.
Why Iron Ore Is Going To Be Great In 2013 [View article]
Short term sugar fix long term diabetic.
Verso Paper: A Lotto Ticket That Might Pay Off [View article]
What could they do with this company? They could shift to packaging materials but how would they fund that? Too much debt. This one dies in a year.
Investors Chase Neuralstem On Successful Phase I Trial [View article]
Most of these biotech firms are complete scams and they are the worst kind of scam hyping the public with false hope over a fatal disease like ALS. Feeding off of someone's misery takes a real SOB.
Talk Of Special Dividend And Other Positives Could Power Microsoft Higher [View article]
Surface however is a proper move forward. Its pricy but the software integration will allow licensing of the technology and I think tablets and the cloud will eventually dominate.
Further, the OS on a chip concept helps MSFT get paid. I also see the rise of INTC and MSFT minus HP as the tech leaders going forward. INTC needs to scrap its diversity idiocy and go back to a fully nerd run and controlled operation. They have way too many execubtches lauding power over the more intelligent nerds; nerds don't like that and they have moved to smaller companies that now compete with INTC. This just proves that diversity is not a strength but a sure fire way to fall flat on your tech face.
I also think that MSFT is a great long term investment because eventually they will get rid of Ballmer the place holder and somebody with a brain will come in and start spinning divisions to the shareholders. MSFT right now is a bureaucratic mess with Gates and his uberliberal politics pushing this diversity krap. As for Africa, the more people Gates saves from the Mosquito the more that die of starvation and HIV. Liberal meddling shows Gates is not a real nerd but a poser. He needs to disappear and take his foundation away and clear out of microsoft.
Whoever Gets Knight Gets A Bargain [View article]
The future is high frequency trading. It brings the bid and asked to a razor's edge. It reduces the cost of transactions for all and if you think global markets are not ready to explode with massive market activity you are living under a rock. American traders are the undisputed best in the world and they don't need supervision from a lot of luddites that want life to be lived at a slower pace. The fast pace suits many of us just fine. We want our orders filled when filed. High frequency platforms put the individual on a much more even footing.
Whoever Gets Knight Gets A Bargain [View article]
My valuation is that KCG is worth $6 a share at book. Knight is recovering from stupidity and they had to dilute to pay that tuition. But the company remains intact but now better for the mishap. Big Blue has been in fixing the software and putting in the right alarms. So the company is better than before.
For GETCO this is a backdoor IPO and that is worth plenty. One of the things the moronic talking heads never address is the carryover tax loss of 400 million to the suitor. This is not a negative... this is cash money to the suitor and needs to be extracted from any deal's value. It covers the debt for any company that has a large taxible income. It is nearly a free company when included in the analysis.
I deal in M&A structures and M&A tax matters. I can tell you that this deal if rushed through is a windfall. But if the deal were sweetened a bit for the Shares say to $5 or a stock equivalent in the KCG - GETCO company, it would be a great deal for all. So the preliminary bid by GETCO is in the right direction.
TD Ameritrade has $600 million in income, for a stock trade and cash to the enterprise, that deal would be golden too.
The Grasso dark pool is a scam deal. Its dirty and involves a bribe of sorts to give Joyce and the board, a new company and new IPO. It is a total abrogation of the shares and is a filthy deal. I figured as much from Grasso and his dark pool. The Grasso deal will result in a pierce the corporate shell styled lawsuit like an ice berg ripping opened the Titanic. It is a foul deal. To make that fly, Grasso will have to come up with $10 a share cash and participation in the new IPO. Blackrock and LUK and Jefferies are not stupid.
The analyst valuation are all wrong. KCG is a business that is highly regulated. There is is no way any company could be started in this area, the cost of admission is too high. So that has to be figured into the value as intrinsic.
Assume that KCG prior to the accident had a FVM of $15. With a 60% dilution the present FMV is $6. With the strong hand holders, that FMV + intrinsics is easily $10. So that is where the Grasso deal would BEGIN! But this causes some tax problems for KCG speculators due to taxes. None of the strong hands want that kind of tax liability so Grasso should shell the assets in an existing company and issue shares of the shell which would then be purchased by the company forming the IPO. Without this kind of planning, the Grasso deal is an insult.
I think GS needs to roll in the tanks. This is a perfect property for them plus it has a mortgage backed securities business in place.
Goldman could use stock to buy the whole mess with virtually no cost to the shares and take immediate advantage of the tax deduction. It is a perfect fit for the Goldman operation. Though if I were Goldman, I would try to sweep up GETCO in the same deal. That is the perfect deal. The timing couldn't be better. I am absolutely certain that Goldman has been tinkering with the numbers in the back room and you gotta know a few of the whale masters are salivating.
I do not understand TD Americatrade's position. They should be launching forward. They have nothing to lose since they already have a big stake. Combining with GETCO is not enough, they need better value.
GETCO is most certainly on the right track and I would expect a much better offer coming on the table which offers the shares a valuable stock holding going forward. But it will have to be a lot sweeter deal for the shares. Yet this one could be structured to deliver shares worth $10 with a transfer of assets rather than cash for shares. I have no idea why GETCO was even contemplating cash for shares; that's a dumb deal for the strong hands. GETCO can buy back shares and reduce the float that way. That way the stock has a built in bottom and a fantastic future potential.
GETCO is a little green at this process. But what they need to contemplate is the cost of an IPO v. the cost of a backdoor IPO. With the merger, they get the best of all worlds, up and running public company that is well capitalized with a massive strong hands share base. That's really valuable.
Knight Capital Group: Buy Or Sell? [View article]
This company suffered a singular event tied to the continuation of other computer trading issues. But that's life, some space shuttle crews were lost and some Astronauts in the Apollo program.
The great advantage of this company is the unassailable difficulty of any other company climbing the startup cost wall to bring to the table what Knight already has in place. I have read a remarkable number of stupid comments here but the reality is that computer trading is not going away, if anything it is going to expand and Knight will in all likelihood lead the way.
They have already hired Big Blue to do a total software analysis and fix. Knight is going to come out of this with the best software in the industry. Out of this accident, Knight will have done a much superior analysis of the problem by far than anyone in the industry. Other companies are just presuming safety but in the Future, Knight will be sought after because It dug deeply and fixed the problem and will have superior load balanced system that nobody else will have.
This article like many on seeking alpha, has the author on the right path but his analysis on earning potential is completely flawed. This is a hugely complex business and it is a variable closed shop to competition. Knight is not too big to fail but it is too important in this narrow field such that private capital smart money was making offers before the company made solicitations.
I predict the value of this stock at 8 to 10 a share by Dec. Volumes will be picking up substantially due to the Fed's extraordinary "OPENED ENDED" QE policy. Knight will fix the software while the SEC will still fumble over the flash crash. Eventually the smartest and biggest money will will want to be working with Knight who will have by far and away the best software in the industry.
I am glad people are using conventional analysis to measure this company but that is meaningless here because the expertise is what you want. Remember Dr. Debakey lost a number of patients on the operating room table before he became the best at complex aortic artery reconstruction. Years ago one of my cadavers, a former commercial pilot, had a full Dacron aorta from the heart to the bifurcated iliacs. Each vessel from the renal arteries to the subclavians was sewn into the Dacron.
There was simply no other surgeon or surgical team back then, other than DeBakey that had the skill set to pull this off.
Usually with a dissecting Aorta, you just clamp the Aorta with a "DeBakie", which is a big clamp and you work like heck under severe time constraints. But to put dacron all the way to the aortic valve, he had to stop the heart. He had the equipment, the skill sets and the team. Everybody else was groping in the dark.
Knight will have the skill set and the best software in the industry while the others grope around in the dark.
4 Questions For David Einhorn [View article]
4 Questions For David Einhorn [View article]
4 Questions For David Einhorn [View article]
Igor's article is spot on except that he politely asks the questions to Einhorn and I would sue Einhorn. Hedge fund manipulation is out of control. Just because they find subtle ways to smash stocks by merely asking questions doesn't make the manipulation less sinister. It is merely a means of skirting the intent of the law.
Trading is a privilege not a right. It is regulated to prevent manipulation. When Einhorn attacks a company he doesn't invite opinion, he just makes assumptions. In the case of Green Mountain, he made a huge math error that was picked up after the fact, after the damage was done.
In Commercial speech, truth in advertising is essential to protect consumers, the same requirement exists for attacking a product. You can't publish a report that says Coke causes brain tumors. To lean back and say it was just a benign opinion is not going to work in a Commercial setting. Coke could sue you.
I am not a shareholder in this company but the damage done by Einhorn without remorse or even explanatory comment, was so great and so material that the SEC must investigate. Einhorn is probably already under investigation for this because of some of his pat attacks on companies.
If he owned or bought or sold stock in this company prior to or after this manipulation, he could go to jail. So he's probably been advised by his lawyers to not speak.
His history is not squeaky clean, he has at lest one charge for insider trading in international markets.
You could do the same thing as he is doing, look at 10K s and devise a question about reporting. You could get onto Caps or Seeking Alpha and write an article like the guy that called NAT a ponzi scheme. You could short and make a lot of money. But you ought to be sued for it. Better than an article, you might get to make a conference call question and make the stock tumble.
Remember it is much easier to bring a stock down than make it go up. Remember the tylenol poisonings? People got killed with that one and the stock tanked. The killer bought puts and killed people randomly. Einhorn makes money shorting. Imagine how easy it is for him; he just asks a question or two and the stock tumbles. So that answers your idiotic rhetorical question. Einhorn is not just any short seller, so therefore he has a special duty to be very careful with what he does when he buys or sells stock or participates in any event that could cause a material damage to a company.