When Anti-Pirates Sue Each Other Over Pirating Each Other's Technology…

from the this-gets-fun dept

Well, this is fun. A tech company in Germany is claiming that movie studio Warner Bros. has “pirated” its “anti-piracy” technology. No, seriously. You can read the full complaint (pdf) below:

It’s actually a patent infringement lawsuit, but unlike most patent infringement lawsuits, the company suing, Medien Patent Verwaltung (MPV), claims that it actually met with Warner Bros. and “disclosed the technology” to the company. While I have to admit that I find it quite amusing to see Warner Bros. accused of “pirating” its “anti-piracy” technology, when you look at the details, it seems like a typically ridiculous patent scenario, with some random company suing for patent infringement over something another company came up with independently.

Making things even more amusing? In the lawsuit, MPV mis-identifies its own patent, incorrectly using the title of a patent.. held by Warner Bros! MPV’s patent 7,187,633 is titled “Marking of a data medium material for information intended for reproduction.” Warner Bros., though, has a different patent, 7,206,409, titled “Motion picture anti-piracy coding.” But in the filing… MPV refers to the title of its own patent as “Motion picture anti-piracy coding” and never mentions Warner’s actual patent by that name. Ooooops. Oh, and the WB patent? Filed before MPVs…

Filed Under: , , , ,
Companies: medien patent verwaltung, mpv, warner bros.

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Comments on “When Anti-Pirates Sue Each Other Over Pirating Each Other's Technology…”

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16 Comments
staff1 says:

shock

“…but unlike most patent infringement lawsuits, the company suing, Medien Patent Verwaltung (MPV), claims that it actually met with Warner Bros. and “disclosed the technology” to the company”

I am completely shocked and dismayed that a large company would steal from a small company. What is the world coming to??

Vic Kley says:

Mike the Judicial Scholar (NOT)

A legal filing of 22 pages without a single mistake is unlikely. Until the trial is over it is impossible to know what errors will be corrected or actual misrepresentations revealed. Many times the complaint is amended and corrected before the trial.

This document does not in any way show us the basis or even claimed basis for independent invention by Warner nor should it! Warner has to do that not the Plaintiff! How you, Mike can assert such a claim without apparent evidence of any kind suggests foolish blather or a payoff from Warner (perhaps both).

You should be embarrassed by this Mike. In that you clearly are not any temptation anyone reading your worthless blather you be warned off by the following announcement.

THIS BLOG FAILS ALL TESTS OF RATIONAL THOUGHT AND CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THE TRUTH

Michael (profile) says:

Re: Mike the Judicial Scholar (NOT)

Are you on something? Of course the document being filed by MPV suing Warner for a patent violation is not going to directly demonstrate that Warner came up with a similar idea independently. That’s the opposite of what they are trying to extort money for.

The evidence is in the mistake pointed out. MPV has at least read about the Warner patent for something similar (because they mis-used the name of the Warner patent). They avoided discussing this patent that they know about. The Warner patent was filed before the MPV patent. Any of this making sense to you?

Nope – there is not conclusive evidence yet. I guess that is why Mike wrote: “it seems like a typically ridiculous patent scenario” rather than: “there is proof that this is a bogus lawsuit”.

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