Patent Hawk Files Supreme Court Brief On Behalf Of All Oregon; Oregon Officials Say 'Who?'

Too Much Free Time

from the good-work! dept

You may recall that a guy named Gary Odom, who refers to himself often in the third person as “Patent Hawk,” has been known to stop by here every so often to insult us without ever, you know, backing up a point. His day job is helping companies do patent/prior art searches. Last year, he made a bit of news by suing Microsoft for a patent he held on “editable toolbars” (exciting stuff). Microsoft later accused him of violating a contract, in that Odom (whoops) had worked for Microsoft, and had an agreement about not filing for certain types of patents, or asserting them against Microsoft.

Now, with the Supreme Court agreeing to hear the Bilski case, which could have a big impact on the patentability of software and business models, a bunch of folks have been dutifully filing their amici briefs attempting to convince the Supreme Court one way or the other. These latest briefs more or less reflect what was in the original briefs filed prior to the CAFC ruling. Still, there was one interesting one: Odom and a buddy filed their own brief (which Odom, again in the third person praised his own brief as being “cogently potent in its brevity and conservatism” — nothing like patting oneself on the back).

The brief itself is fine (though I believe a bit misleading in what it leaves out… but that’s what these briefs tend to do). However, what stood out, was the odd claim on the brief that it was filed on behalf of the State of Oregon (where Odom resides). That’s quite a claim… and it appears the State of Oregon, in the form of its Attorney General, doesn’t agree with Odom that this represents the state:

Tony Green, a spokesman for the Oregon Attorney General, said no one in his office had heard of Odom’s purported statewide representation before [Joe Mullin at The Prior Art] called. “It is our preference that people accurately convey who they’re writing an amicus brief on behalf of,” says Green. “We neither authorized this or had any knowledge of it.”

Of course, Green also points out that the Supreme Court figured out that Odom’s claim to represent the State of Oregon was backed up with about as much weight as his typical insults, and properly filed the brief as just being from Odom and his friend, rather than the state of Oregon.

Filed Under: bilski, gary odom, oregon, patent hawk