Paul Allen v. the World lurches forward – Judge says no delay on initial disclosures

“The Paul Allen against the World case is moving forward. In
fact, faster than the parties probably expected. There was a
stipulation to extend time to complete initial disclosures from
November 1 to two weeks past whenever the claims were clearer,
either through an amended complaint or two weeks after infringement
contentions are due. But the judge denied it. And he goes on to
remind the parties that the date for filing the joint status report
is November 8.

“The strange part is, I don’t see how the parties can comply
when Allen’s complaint is so vague. Even Gene Quinn, who thinks the
sun rises and sets on patents, said it was “a complaint without any
substantive information and naked recitation of a variety of
patents that have ‘one or more’ unspecified claims being infringed
for unspecified reasons.” How do the defendants provide initial
disclosures to that? Plus Google has an undecided motion seeking to
dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim.

“Maybe the judge found the complaint a little annoying too, and
so he intends to punish the plaintiff by insisting on the schedule
even though nobody knows what the claims specifically are? Dream
on. This is the style, Quinn wrote, that trolls favor, and courts
don’t seem to ever clip their wings. Here’s what initial
disclosures are.”

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