It looks like the gig may be up for Righthaven LLC, the "copyright troll" that filed 275 copyright infringement lawsuits against website owners, bloggers and even message board posters without actually owning the copyrights in question.
On Tuesday, November 1, the Federal District court in Las Vegas ordered the U.S. Marshals to seize over $63,000 in assets from Righthaven. That amount would cover not only $34,045.50 in legal fees awarded to Wayne Hoehn - the defendant in one of Righthaven's unsuccessful lawsuits - but also an additional $30,000 that the Randazza Legal Group has spent in efforts to get Righthaven to pay the $34K.
We've written extensively about Righthaven on this blog, so we won't recap the whole sorry story here. But this might be the last post on the subject: Righthaven says it faces bankruptcy if a creditor such as Hoehn seizes the company's assets. (However, its cash crunch hasn't prevented Righthaven from continuing to pay attorneys litigating its other cases in Nevada, Colorado and South Carolina.)
The lesson to be learned: Isn't it obvious? Make sure you have standing before you bring a lawsuit!