FotoCrazy wrote:
We filed a claim against Capstone in 2013 and he had to respond through attorneys. That is a VERY expensive way to communicate. Michael seems to be fixated in fighting until the bitter end. It makes absolutely no sense. The noose is tightening more and more around his business and personal finances. I really hate to see what he is doing to himself.
His recent filing of a Motion For a Judgment on The Pleadings is a feudal and VERY expensive way to invalidate the patents. We have filed a response and his motion will be denied.
schlotz wrote:
Finally, some common sense is applied! Glad to hear this has been overturned.
+1. Common sense indexing and searching of athletes by number and or time is not a revolutionary or unique idea and should never have been patentable in the first place.
Awesome news. I remember not paying the 'bully fee' for my images of races on Printroom years ago and held my breath. Doesn't affect me any more, but still, this kind of channels the feeling we all got as kids while watching the wicked witch of the west melt into a smoky puddle.
I suppose Mr. Wolf could appeal the decision, but I suspect he would find that a costly endeavor.
In following this story over the years, I always believed his legal team worked under the guise that their payments would from settlements and Mr. Wolf incurred semi-minimal out of pocket expenses. But I could be wrong.
I also have to think he had to have been advised that, particularly with recent changes in law, the chances of these patents being ruled invalid were fairly high.
One would assume if he were to appeal, he would have to cover legal fees and as of yesterday his cash flow was cut dramatically. And, with the chance of the ruling being overturned being reasonably low, I suspect the judge would be unwilling to stay his ruling pending appeal. Meaning Mr. Wolf’s cash flow would remain cut off.
So the question becomes whether Mr. Wolf is willing to risk his business and personal finances in a cause with only slim chance of success.
Tom D wrote:
Doesn't affect me any more, but still, this kind of channels the feeling we all got as kids while watching the wicked witch of the west melt into a smoky puddle.
Ding Dong! { Que sound of patented flying monkeys thudding to the earth }
Methodical wrote:
Can the companies that paid for a license recoup their monies after this ruling?
This is what I was hoping for... but I suspect that the companies who paid the license fees to Wolf didn't pay them out of their own pocket. They instead passed the license fees on to the consumer, and may even have marked the fees up to cover the collection costs and make a profit as well. That might make for a bit of conflict of interest in recovery.
Hypothetical example... if $1.50 was collected per photo, a $1.00 might have gone to Peter Wolf, and the $0.50 might have been retained by Smugmug or MarathonFoto. Exact figures are not known, so please regard these figures and percentages as pure conjecture.
But for those photographers who did fearfully fall for Wolf's extortive line of "It's too expensive for you to fight me, and the big guns in the industry have already bowed down to me, so you should too"... I hope they all find each other, band together, and go after Peter Wolf civilly for damages commensurate with their losses. To any extent that Wolf remains culpable for any omissions or misrepresentations made to the patent office regarding the disclosure of prior art and common practices in our industry, that might serve as another cause of action if a collective effort were made to discover it.
In the meantime, the entire event photography industry owes Michael Skelps a HUGE THANK YOU for being the only photographer in this industry who had the stones to resist the Wolf's Cease and Desist. Maybe that's why he calls his company CapSTONE photography. He's got a pair. And the best way to thank him is by donating to defray his huge legal bills for taking this patent abuser to down to the mat.
To combat this patent abuse, Michael had to leave his own photography company, putting the reins into the hands of won of his most trusted employees, in order to devote his full time energies and attentions to fighting for right for all of us. Then, Michael had to seek a job in the corporate world in order to feed his family as the legal bills mounted. Please thank Michael for his personal sacrifice and willingness to take a risk that not even the big giants like Brightroom or SmugMug or MarathonFoto were willing to take... and donate to www.endpatentabuse.com .
BREAKING NEWS: A Federal Judge in the Central District of California has struck down all three patents in the lawsuit in which Capstone Photography is a defendant. The Court ruled "that all three of the patents in suit are directed to patent-ineligible abstract ideas, and lack an inventive concept that would make them patent-eligible applications of those ideas." The case is over and Capstone has prevailed. We are excited to have this issue resolved in our favor! However, the legal expenses are very steep and our small business will take quite a long time to recover from the $100,000 in legal expenses we have incurred. If you feel that we have helped your business, please consider donating at www.endpatentabuse.com
FotoCrazy wrote:
What nonsense are you now referring to? Who helped me years ago in good faith?
This is what I mean, someone posts misleading and hearsay information and you guys jump all over it as if it was factual You must have something better to do than perpetuate this nonsense... this is reaching a level of absurdity.
Peter Wolf
Peter, it isn't "hearsay." Nine and a half years ago, on May 25, 2005, presumably following one of six rejections of your patent applications that have recently been invalidated entirely, and about a half year before your patents were granted, you posted the following request for help in coming up with "legal" terms to define what exactly an "Event Photograph" is... and you asked for this definitive help from the same event photography community that you later sued, using their own terms against them, for taking "event" photographs and posting them for sale in an organized manner online:
Peter Wolf wrote on May 25, 2005 11:43 AM:
"What is an Event Photograph? Legal Issue! I have a legal issue about what is an Event Photograph."
"Can anyone help me out defining some of the key elements of an Event Photograph (50 words or less)? I need some unbiased contributions of people knowledgeable in the field.
I am not looking for an all-encompassing definition of an event photograph but something that many who read this Forum are familiar with from their own experience.
What is YOUR interpretation of an event photograph? Whatever event you specialize in give me your interpretation what you consider a good event photo would look like. What is the subject matter and composition of the photograph?
A picture of a tree or some other inanimate object probably wouldn't qualify as an event photograph unless something was happening to the tree or the object being photographed.
And experienced event photographers offered you the answers you requested.
I think if you had instead asked "What is YOUR interpretation an Event Photograph? I'm filing a patent on Event Photography, and I want to make sure I have your definition covered in my patent application"... you would have received a different response.
Peter Wolf wrote on January 10, 2006:
Several years ago I revolutionized event photography by publishing pictures for inspection, selection and distribution on the Internet. I filed a patent application for this methodology, and recently, the application was issued as United States Patent No. 6,985,875. For your convenience, a copy of the patent is enclosed herewith.
The purpose of this letter is to alert you that any photographers performing event photography services in a manner covered by the patent need to be licensed. In some circumstances, those working in association with the photogrpher, such as an event organizer, may also be found to infringe the patent. Thus, we encourage you to contact your existing or anticipated event photographers to ensure that they perform event photography services in a manner other than that covered by the patent, or that they are properly licensed.
If you would like to verify that your existing or anticipated event photographer has been properly licensed, please email your inquiry to [email protected] We further invite you to contact us by telephone, in writing or by email ([email protected]) with any questions or concerns you might have reguarding this letter, and we will respond in a friendly and courteous manner.
A copy of one of Wolf's original letters that he sent to many event producers, organizers, and photographers by certified mail. The letter above was posted by a former associate of his, to whom he sent the same letter.
