Summary: Microsoft fined $40 million for misconduct and Gary Odom misrepresents Oregon

EARLIER today we wrote about ODF FUD which the Microsoft crowd was spreading using the i4i patent case. O'Gara and Sys-Con [1, 2] have unsurprisingly joined this slime parade against ODF and meanwhile we also come to discover that Microsoft was fined an extra $40,000,000 for misconduct at the i4i trial.

The judge who banned Microsoft from selling its Word document program in the U.S. due to a patent violation tacked an additional $40 million onto a jury's $200 million verdict because the software maker's lawyers engaged in trial misconduct, court records reveal.

Speaking of misconduct, "Patent Hawk" is back in the news. He used to work on behalf of Microsoft, but later on he sued the company and then sued another 27 companies for patent infringement. We last wrote about him a few months ago and here's the latest scoop.

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

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.

It is a sordid mess caused by the above which puts the patent system as a whole in bad light and popularises the movement for a much-needed reform. This system only protects the private territory of established companies. ⬆