Creditor Moves to Dismantle Copyright Troll Righthaven
The financial woes of Las Vegas-based copyright trolling firm Righthaven worsened Saturday when one of the defendants it unsuccessfully sued for infringement asked a judge to allow seizure of the firm’s assets — with the help of the U.S. Marshals, if necessary.
The legal filing dropped moments after the Friday deadline expired for the litigation factory to pay defendant Wayne Hoehn $34,000 in legal fees. Hoehn successfully defended himself against a Righthaven copyright lawsuit seeking large damages for posting the entirety of a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial to a small online message board.
Righthaven had asked U.S. District Judge Philip Pro of Nevada to stay the fee award, saying it might slip into bankruptcy if forced to pay.
An earlier deadline passed last month, prompting Judge Pro to reset it for Friday, a decision a federal appeals court let stand last week.
“Righthaven has exhausted any benefit of the doubt that it could be afforded, and it is time for it to pay the consequences for its actions – starting with Hoehn’s lawful judgment plus the accrued costs and fees expended in the (so far) futile attempts to compel Righthaven to take this court’s orders seriously,” Marc Randazza, Hoehn’s attorney, wrote the court.
A filing in the case shows that Randazza wants the court to “authorize the U.S. Marshalls to execute Hoehn’s judgment through seizure of Righthaven’s bank accounts, real and personal property, and intangible intellectual property rights for levy, lien, auction or other treatment appropriate for satisfaction of Hoehn’s judgment.” (.pdf)
Struggling after several courtroom setbacks, Righthaven has ceased filing new lawsuits pending resolution of the Hoehn case and others on appeal. Righthaven was hit with a separate order Wednesday to pay $120,000 in legal fees in another case it had lost.
Borrowing a page from patent trolls, in the spring of 2010 Righthaven was formed with the idea of suing blogs and websites that re-post those newspaper articles without permission.
Righthaven initially was winning and settling dozens of cases as defendants paid a few thousand dollars each to make the cases go away. But Righthaven has never prevailed in a case that was defended in court.
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