Hacker News Reader

Comment by willvarfar | Hacker News Reader

I think this ruling will severely curtail his future income.

He had managed to attract 25% of all patent cases because those bringing the suites were choosing his troll-friendly court.

However, going forward, those trolls will have to go to the court where the defendant has a physical place?

View on HN

> I think this ruling will severely curtail his future income.

Um, no. Under Article III section 1 of the U.S. Constitution, federal judges are appointed for life, and their salary cannot be reduced [0]. In general, judges are prohibited from accepting compensation from parties before them, and indeed are quite restricted in what outside compensation they can accept for anything [1].

[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articleiii

[1] http://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/vol02c-ch10.pdf

It's interesting then what makes Gilstrap so energetic in his efforts to keep those patent-cases coming. Assuming there are no direct monetary payments from patent trolls coming his way, what is is incentive? Does he get "favors" from patent trolls, or does he have a relatives or friends who benefit from his practices? Always follow the money, is what I heard :).

Money is far from the only thing that motivates people to do bad stuff. Plus, consider, he may not even think of what he's doing as at all bad.

The tradition in the Texas was to have son create and run patent law practices while the judges serve in the court to get around the direct benefit technicality. Then when the judge retires he joins a patent law practice.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/east-texas-judge...

Compensation doesn't always come in direct form.

Marshall, Tx has a population of about 25k. Yet, the city continues to get donations from Samsung which has patent cases in the district[0][1]. My own hometown was quite a bit larger than 25k, but I don't ever recall having major corporate sponsors of a wide variety of activities.

While I don't know the thoughts of Samsung or Judge Gilstrap, I imagine he's very popular for bring so much business to town.

[0] - https://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/2012/oct/20/samsu... TVs, MP3 players, athletic sponsor, library, habitat for humanity, boys and girls club, fire department, etc.

[1] - http://www.marshalltexas.net/uploads/pdf/Community_Update_10... Returning attractions include the Samsung ice rink

>I think this ruling will severely curtail his future income.

I don't see any obvious tie in number of cases in his court to his income. I assume it helps the local Sherman economy some, with all the lawyers staying in the rural town, but that's not very direct. Maybe you're suggesting he would get some deferred quid-pro-quo like a job offer or company board spot when he retires?

If I recall correctly, his son is a lawyer in that district who specializes in representing patent trolls.

His son is a lawyer specializing in commercial law. He's based in Dallas. It appears most of his cases were in a different district, but I see at least one case on the Eastern District. The cases appear to be more broad than just patent cases.

https://www.velaw.com/Who-We-Are/Find-a-Lawyer/Gilstrap--Ste...

I wonder if this is a complete list of his cases. Given that he's been a laywer for 7 years, I'm inclined to think not, but I can't say I'm familiar enough with the legal world to judge the quality of this source.

It says he was a judicial clerk through 2013. And I assume both he and his father would be aware of the potential issues with optics.

Edit: Optics meaning the appearance of bias, nepotism, etc. I don't dispute the judge is supporting patent trolls. There is, though, no evidence it's for personal financial gain, and I suspect there's been significant digging. It is perhaps just ego driven.

What is "optics"? And I offer these guys very little trust, given that the father is the shadiest and most notorious patent troll player in the country.

The “optics” of a situation are “how it would be perceived in a critical evaluation”, especially in the press. So the optics of having a son bring patent case to his father’s patent-friendly district are very poor.

The main help to the economy appears to be direct charity from Samsung, but I'm not sure that's actually related to Gilstrap's motives. I think he may just be sincere, and bad at his job.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/02/patent-troll-cla...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com