Atlanta Attorney Withdraws Defamation Suit Against Electronic Frontier Foundation

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Atlanta Attorney Withdraws Defamation Suit Against Electronic Frontier Foundation


It has been an eventful ten days or so for Atlanta attorney Scott Horstemeyer. On May 26, through counsel Sanford Asman, Horstemeyer, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Electronic Frontier Foundation for identifying U.S. Patent No. 9,013,334 as its “Stupid Patent of the Month” on April 30. Mr. Horstemeyer is the named inventor of that and many other patents  now owned by two well–known patent trolls, Eclipse IP and ArrivalStar. Both of these firms are frequent–filers of patent lawsuits under Mr. Horstemeyer’s patents. Among other allegations in his defamation complaint, Horstemeyer alleged that he had been defamed by EFF’s assertion that Mr. Horstemeyer had not informed the Patent Office in the prosecution of the ’334 patent that three related patents had recently been ruled invalid by U.S. District Court Judge George Wu in the Central District of California.

Yesterday, on June 4, it appears, Mr. Horstemeyer had a change of heart (or tactics). He filed a notice of voluntary dismissal without prejudice with the Fulton County court, bringing the litigation to an end (for now at least—theoretically, the case could be revived at a later date). The brouhaha has certainly called a great deal of attention to EFF’s blog post, Horstemeyer’s patent, and Eclipse’s litigation history. Increased attention, however, does not seem to have been the original intent of the lawsuit.

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