Legal News

Nathan Myhrvold?s Lobbying Efforts Lead to . . . a Strange Lawsuit

By Dionne Searcey

How’s this: A lawsuit that pits a former Ross Perot presidential running mate against the king of patent aggregating/molecular cooking — with a cameo role from organized labor?

A breach of contract suit filed in federal court in the District of Columbia this week has all that and more.

The suit was filed by Pat Choate of Ross Perot running-mate fame and also a noted author of books on economic development and intellectual property issues.

Choate (pictured) is suing Nathan Myhrvold's secretive Intellectual Ventures, the mega patent aggregator, over a lobbying contract.

Myhrvold, who critics have labeled a "patent troll" recently released his mega cookbook on the science behind cooking.

Here's what happened, according to the lawsuit: Choate was hired by Peter Harter, IV's Washington lobbyist, in 2006 to blunt the patent reform movement churning in Congress that could have weakened the rights of patent owners such as Myhrvold.

Choate testifed on behalf of patent owners and secured a spot in 2007 at a secret, invite-only meeting with all members of the House Judiciary Committee that was considering patent-reform legislation.

Soon after, IV began to be ostracized by other anti-patent reformers who "considered IV to be a troll" the suit says. So Choate, at a tab of $30,000 a month, headed up Myhrvold's "plan b" effort to fight the legislation.

Choate was also told to focus his efforts on organized labor because unions were lining up against the legislation for fear that jobs would be lost. But he was told to "hide in the crowd" because several of IV's investors, including Bill Gates, supported proposed patent reform legislation.

Choate's efforts continued and then in March 2009, according to the suit, Sen. Patrick Leahy's Senate Judiciary Committee gutted the provision in the bill that IV opposed. The suit says IV changed its tune and even held fundraising events for Leahy.

"By 2010, IV was officially urging the Senate leadership to allow a vote on the patent reform bill," the suit said.

In the suit Choate said no one ever told him to stop lobbying against the bill, so he persevered and is owed $494,986 for his efforts.

One interesting tidbit to surface in the suit: It claims IV it has earned $2 billion in licensing fees by purchasing the rights to more than 30,000 "assets."

A spokeswoman for IV said the company was conducting a full review and had no further comment.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 17, 2011 (boomark / email).