E-Commerce Times Uses Handel as Expert
E-Commerce Times quoted Jonathan Handel in three stories about recent lawsuits involving Yahoo, Oracle and Motorola.
The first story (which also ran on Google News) concerns accusations that Yahoo! facilitated torture and unjust imprisonment of two Chinese dissidents by revealing details of their user accounts to Chinese police authorities. The lawsuit alleges that, as a result, the dissidents were arrested, tortured and sentenced to long prison terms at forced labor.
The August 28, 2007, story focuses on Yahoo's just-filed Motion to Dismiss, in which the company expresses sympathy for the dissidents, but argues that the case has "no place in the American courts." In his quote, Handel acknowledges that Yahoo! faced a tough choice, but asserts that it needs to bear some responsibility for its actions. Describing the case as "very political and ideological," Handel predicted that it would ultimately go to the Supreme Court.
The second story, filed August 29, 2007, discusses a lawsuit filed by Oracle alleging that arch-rival SAP unlawfully downloaded copies of 10,000 technical documents, software updates, and other files from Oracle servers, all in an attempt to better compete with Oracle.
Commenting that the conduct alleged, if true, is "astonishing in its recklessness," Handel warned that Oracle is extremely aggressive in protecting its IP. Theoretically, he noted, statutory damages could amount to $1.5 billion. He concluded by predicting that Oracle would not make it easy for SAP to settle.
The third story, dated August 30, 2007, relates to a patent infringement lawsuit filed by subsidiaries of Motorola against Aruba Networks. As permitted by the applicable federal rules, Motorola chose to provide in its pleading virtually no details of the alleged infringement.
As a result, Handel explained, it is particularly important not to form judgments on the merits of the case. "Not only do we not know [Aruba's] side of the story, we don't even know Motorola's side of the story," he commented.
