Google did not give the patents to HTC for keeps, google is letting HTC use them as part of their fight. Other android device makers can use the patents as well if they get into a dispute with microsoft, rim, apple, or anyone else who uses wireless communication.

Your university must suck. I went to an average state university and everyone I know that wanted an engineering job found one.

You are clearly not an engineer if you think tuition bills are the problem. Most good engineers do not go into much debt because of scholarship programs, which happen to be very good in engineering because there is a very small amount of engineers. Especially if they go into a phd program, which is completely paid for with a living stipend.

Dead on. I would mod you up but you are already at a 5. The only thing I would have to add to your reply would be that coupons generally are not given anymore. Lawyers only collect on coupons that are used, thus they opt for the cash route much more often. And a lot of time the cash is so insignificant to each individual that it is given to charity or an NPO. I.E. the recent google buzz case going to privacy NPOs.

He will most likely try and get a settlement out of it before he has to show much damages. He should have went with the privacy route, it would be much easier to get a settlement, and you automatically get around $10 million without having to show harm.

Easier said than done. Tenure track positions rely heavily on publication in good journals. Losing your job over a copyright is not worth it for one person, it would take an industry wide movement, which is very hard to organize.

How do you enforce a non-disclosure? Kindly ask the person not to use any of the knowledge or experience he acquired on the previous job? Even if the person was serious in agreeing to that, its hard to not subconsciously use the information and skills that you were hired to provide. How do you know the person used that information or information they had before their original job. If you want any type of successful restriction, non-compete is the real way to go.

You can sue a corporation in any state that they do business in, therefore you could likely sue both companies in any state... And they could probably argue for a preliminary injunction, which would bar him from working until the trial, so much of the case would be arguing over the preliminary injunction.

Is that the plot to Terminator 4? I have a feeling Arnold could stop this.

I wonder if they were allowed to use calculators?

A blanket wont work. It has to be reflective and distort the image a little. Try a mirror from the 1700's.

I find it hard to say that a one sided argument to a judge of DHS's choosing is due process.

Liability was based off of a contract term called reliance or promissory estoppel. Because he relied on a promise of a job, and it cost him a bunch of money, he is given damage for what he went through. I am not a lawyer but that is the basic premise of the term. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promissory_estoppel

The costs of the trial are normally subtracted from the winnings after the lawyer takes his percentage out of the cut. The lawyer really does win here. The reason he gets so much is the risk of losing the case and not getting any of those costs recuperated. In a contingency suit like this, the lawyer always wins big if he wins.