A chapter in the cable industry is coming to a close with the imprisonment of disgraced Adelphia co-founder John Rigas and his son. And tiny Coudersport, PA, headquarter town to the once-mighty cable company, won’t ever be the same.
Latest case in point: Adelphia’s 72K sq. ft. headquarters building is up for auction, starting with a minimum bid of $1 million. That bargain basement price applies to a picturesque polished granite edifice with interiors constructed of brass, bronze, granite, cherry wood paneling and parquet flooring.
The beautiful building will likely sell for more than the minimum $1 million (the suggested value is $30 million), but you never know — Coudersport is a long way from even a mid-sized city. And the sparkling former Adelphia facilities are a world away from the federal penitentiary where the Rigas men are headed.
(Hat tip to Cablefax.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:30 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The $1.5 billion jury verdict against Microsoft in an MP3 patent infringement case brought by Alcatel-Lucent was set aside yesterday by Judge Rudi Brewster of the U.S. District Court in San Diego. Legal experts had expected the massive jury award, the largest ever in a patent case, to be reduced because of the way the damages had been calculated.
But, I suspect that few people expected the verdict of the jury to be set aside altogether. Judge Brewster ruled that of the two infringement verdicts, one could not stand because Microsoft didn’t infringe on the patent. For the other patent, Judge Brewster said that ownership is murky and a new trial might be needed. (Indeed, a number of companies lay claim to MP3 invention.)
Alcatel-Lucent called the decision “shocking and disturbing” while Microsoft, naturally, hailed it as “a triumph of common sense.” The truth, of course, is somewhere in the middle, although patent law is a bear to parse.
What is clear is that this reversal might derail further litigation by Alcatel-Lucent against hundreds, if not thousands, of other companies that use MP3 technology in their products, from Apple all the way down to small start-ups. Had Alcatel-Lucent unambiguously prevailed against Microsoft in this suit (and it has other patent cases against the Redmond giant pending in the same court), you better believe it would have pressed on with more litigation.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:36 AM | Print | Comments (0)
U.S. District Court judge Ronald Whyte is following in the footsteps of so many of his peers. Yesterday he ruled that a California law that requires labels on violent video games and bars the sale of such games to minors violates the First Amendment right to free speech.
Whyte had already issued a preliminary injunction against the law after The Video Software Dealers Association and the Entertainment Software Association sued to block it. Yesterday’s ruling made that injunction a permanent order.
The ironic champion of the now-overturned law? None other than “Terminator” and “Terminator II” star and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who said the state would appeal Whyte’s decision. Schwarzenegger, however, faces an uphill battle. Similar laws in Louisiana, Minnesota, Michigan (and possibly other states) have been consistently struck down as free speech violations.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:01 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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