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Well, until I do!
A year and a half ago (I actually can barely believe it was that long ago), The Verge published this long-ish piece about northern district of California’s judge William Alsup.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16503076/oracle-vs-google-judge-william-alsup-interview-waymo-uber
It’s a great article — a really good story with all kinds of interesting points where it touches on what passes for real life for people interested in tech, IP, etc., while also including that hilarious interaction between David Boies and Alsup about rangeCheck. It also spends a fair amount of time considering the belief within the technical community that the legal community doesn’t and will not ever properly understand technical matters, and explores whether that is true and where that might go in the future.
The Verge pieces mentions Alsup’s southern accent.
Alsup, in his copious spare time (<— a little humor there), has written a memoir recently published and available in hardcover and kindle and, probably, other formats. _Won Over_ describes his youth in Mississippi and how he was influenced by and participated in the civil rights movement.
This piece:
https://www.law.com/therecorder/2018/12/18/skilled-in-the-art-its-tough-out-there-in-ip-land-403-27505/
describes Alsup’s recent innovation in fast-tracking patent disputes. He calls (called?) it a Shootout, from the western genre of fiction in various formats. The defendant is asked to choose the strongest defense in a case, and the plaintiff the weakest. The idea is to cut through to the important core of the debate — Alsup argues, convincingly, that:
“As Alsup explained back in February, few patent cases are close calls that require a jury trial. In two out of three, it turns out that one side is “way off base,” Alsup said, according to a transcript.”
Why spend 2 years trying to get to the meat when you could just go straight there? I found this bit particularly charming, after Alsup describes why it is called a Shootout:
“Alsup then thought better of that. “That’s a terrible example to use these days so I’m going to take that back. Maybe I’ll call it something else.””
You can just watch the gears moving in Alsup’s head — and, importantly, conscience, heart, spirit, etc. — as he compared the youthful joy of growing up watching “Gunsmoke” to the horror show that is a typical PvP game today, not to mention even worse things that participants in those games occasionally go on to perpetrate.
I mention all this because inevitably, Alsup’s name has popped up again!
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-01/saudi-aramco-makes-a-lot-of-money
He is apparently running the probation for the San Bruno explosion from 2010! Unless I totally misunderstood something which, believe me, is absolutely possible. I am charmed by the idea that Alsup might prevent PG&E — post BK exit after the Camp Fire thing ultimately is handled by other judges in other courtrooms — from paying dividends until they meet some specific safety standards.
From Levine: “This is all theoretical for now, but it means that even if PG&E pays off its creditors, exits bankruptcy, generates profits and has extra money to return to shareholders, it still might not be able to do so unless it also satisfies Judge Alsup about the trees.”
It takes a lot to get me to pay attention to the judge, but this one seems worth paying attention to.
A year and a half ago (I actually can barely believe it was that long ago), The Verge published this long-ish piece about northern district of California’s judge William Alsup.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16503076/oracle-vs-google-judge-william-alsup-interview-waymo-uber
It’s a great article — a really good story with all kinds of interesting points where it touches on what passes for real life for people interested in tech, IP, etc., while also including that hilarious interaction between David Boies and Alsup about rangeCheck. It also spends a fair amount of time considering the belief within the technical community that the legal community doesn’t and will not ever properly understand technical matters, and explores whether that is true and where that might go in the future.
The Verge pieces mentions Alsup’s southern accent.
Alsup, in his copious spare time (<— a little humor there), has written a memoir recently published and available in hardcover and kindle and, probably, other formats. _Won Over_ describes his youth in Mississippi and how he was influenced by and participated in the civil rights movement.
This piece:
https://www.law.com/therecorder/2018/12/18/skilled-in-the-art-its-tough-out-there-in-ip-land-403-27505/
describes Alsup’s recent innovation in fast-tracking patent disputes. He calls (called?) it a Shootout, from the western genre of fiction in various formats. The defendant is asked to choose the strongest defense in a case, and the plaintiff the weakest. The idea is to cut through to the important core of the debate — Alsup argues, convincingly, that:
“As Alsup explained back in February, few patent cases are close calls that require a jury trial. In two out of three, it turns out that one side is “way off base,” Alsup said, according to a transcript.”
Why spend 2 years trying to get to the meat when you could just go straight there? I found this bit particularly charming, after Alsup describes why it is called a Shootout:
“Alsup then thought better of that. “That’s a terrible example to use these days so I’m going to take that back. Maybe I’ll call it something else.””
You can just watch the gears moving in Alsup’s head — and, importantly, conscience, heart, spirit, etc. — as he compared the youthful joy of growing up watching “Gunsmoke” to the horror show that is a typical PvP game today, not to mention even worse things that participants in those games occasionally go on to perpetrate.
I mention all this because inevitably, Alsup’s name has popped up again!
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-01/saudi-aramco-makes-a-lot-of-money
He is apparently running the probation for the San Bruno explosion from 2010! Unless I totally misunderstood something which, believe me, is absolutely possible. I am charmed by the idea that Alsup might prevent PG&E — post BK exit after the Camp Fire thing ultimately is handled by other judges in other courtrooms — from paying dividends until they meet some specific safety standards.
From Levine: “This is all theoretical for now, but it means that even if PG&E pays off its creditors, exits bankruptcy, generates profits and has extra money to return to shareholders, it still might not be able to do so unless it also satisfies Judge Alsup about the trees.”
It takes a lot to get me to pay attention to the judge, but this one seems worth paying attention to.