Patent Troll Sues Fish & Richardson

Illinois Computer Research, the shell entity that Scott C. Harris sold his patents to, that then sued Google after Harris had previously sued Dell, has amended its complaint to assert tortious interference claims against Harris's former law firm, Fish & Richardson. Niro Scavone did the honors here. According to the amended complaint, which you can view here (hopefully - it's my first time trying to upload a PDF),

-- Harris has been inventing since age 12
-- Fish was aware that he was licensing his 27 patents
-- Other clients before Google complained about Harris
-- Fish & Richardson investigated when Dell complained, and told Harris to sell his patents
-- Harris did sell his patents - to Illinois Computer Research
-- On August 29, ICR sent a threat letter to Google.
-- On September 12 (two days after ICR sued Google and the very day I posted my original post -- update here), Fish & Richardson demanded that Scott Harris resign within 24 hours. Harris complied.
-- Fish & Richardson claimed to what was apparently one of Harris's many personal attorneys that it, not Harris, owned the patents
-- According to the complaint, Fish & Richardson accessed Harris's personal email to find out what he was sending to Niro Scavone

Remember - these are all allegations. It begs all sorts of questions, though. Like, who exactly is behind ICR if it's not Harris? Is it the James Parker guy? Is there any connection between Parker and Harris? If not, then why did Harris have to resign from Fish & Richardson. If you sell your patent and retain no interest, there's no conflict, right? Or is it just that he still has an agreement to cooperate with Parker/ICR?

Anyway, fascinating stuff - a look into the inner-politics of a major patent law firm. A boring patent case by just another troll represented by Ray Niro against Google has turned into a circus of finger-pointing and calls for punitive damages.