Gene Quinn
Concerned that a defamation lawsuit against him will have a chilling effect on free speech, IPWatchdog blogger and patent attorney Gene Quinn has vowed to fight – at least for now.
Quinn last week announced he was launching a defense fund and is seeking donations to mount his defense against Invention Submission Corp., aka InventHelp.
“Many other sites say the same things I’ve been saying about InventHelp,” Quinn told Inventors Digest. “But it appears they’re coming after me because I have the most traffic.”
Quinn posted in early January that the IPWatchdog site attracted nearly 700,000 unique visitors in 2009.
He told Inventors Digest that as of last Friday he’s raised less than $200. He expects he’ll need more $500,000.
Quinn has yet to name an attorney. He found no help with Public Citizen, an erstwhile advocate of Internet free speech.
Paul Levy, an attorney with Public Citizen, recently defended self-proclaimed inventor-rights advocate Ronald Riley in a trademark infringement lawsuit.
However, Levy initially told Quinn he did not represent Riley, stating in an e-mail:
“You apparently have incorrect information about past representation of Ronald Riley,” Levy e-mailed Quinn. “The fact that they say “unfair business practices” as a different label for a libel claim does not make4 [sic] the case of interest. Assuming that the gist of the suit is as you first described it – are yuo [sic] telling the truth about them or not — that is not a case for us. Sorry”
Levy is listed as an attorney of record for Riley in court documents (U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia). Records indicate that case is now closed.
Levy responded to an e-mail from Inventors Digest, confirming he represents Riley. He did not elaborate why he told Quinn otherwise.
Riley bills his nonprofit site as an inventor education platform. It contains among other things “cautionary” information about InventHelp, its parent Invention Submission Corp., and founder Martin Berger.
Although the allegations in Riley’s case differed from InventHelp’s complaint, defendants in both cases have cited Internet free-speech protection as a defense.
InventHelp has declined to comment on the case beyond what’s stated in the complaint against Quinn.
As reported here, Invention Submission Corp., doing business as InventHelp, filed suit on Jan. 21, 2010 against IPWatchdog, principle blogger Quinn and his wife Renee, alleging they repeatedly post “false, misleading” and “defamatory” comments.
InventHelp says in its complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Northern New York that it has “suffered economic damages in the loss and deterioration of its business” as the result of what Quinn posts on IPWatchdog.
Click here to read the complaint.
InventHelp seeks $75,000 in damages. It also wants IPWatchdog to stop posting what it considers disparaging remarks, to retract certain statements, and disclose the number of clients IPWatchdog has served who have successfully commercialized inventions using Quinn’s “Invent + Patent System.”
