THE ROBING ROOM

During the past 6 years, Judgle Marilyn Huff has handled seven civil lawsuits involving intelluctual property issues focused primarily on trade dress and copyright claims initiated by one giant plaintiff. In each of the seven instances the suits were directly against small businesses. In my opinion, based upon my personal experience and observations, Judge Huff favored the plaintiff with skewed evidentiary rulings, unduly harsh bench verdicts and sometimes highly questionable wording in jury questions. She seems to have difficulty understanding, and openly questioned 'hard' accounting numbers in the evidence regarding the difference between gross sales and gross profits, profit percentages, and industry averages--at least in one of the cases- and openly, and inappropriately, stated her opinion regarding the credibility and her skepticism of the accounting evidence.I would note that the evidence was virtually unchallenged by opposing counsel in limited cross examination. The hard fact is that Judge Huff clearly appeared to lack understanding of the subject matter and the evidence supporting it. Additionally, she seemed inconsistant in her decisions and rulings involving the distinctions between the concept of trade dress and copyright. In my opinion, she exhibits a strong bias in favor of this particular Plaintiff, which appears to be on a questionable and aggressive crusade to use the court in a preemptive strike aimed at restricting or destroying legitimate business enterprises which do not actually compete in Plaintiff's segment of the market, Regrettably, I believe she has a marginal understanding of the issues in these types of cases, demonstrates bias in favor of this particular plaintiff, and is unable to disern any suspect or questionable motives in their pattern of conduct. I feel she has 'bought into' their approach to this particular pattern and type of litigation on these types of claims, and is now unable to evaluate each case on its own merits. It frankly appears to me that her courtoom is a sanctuary to the birds she likes, and hell to the efendants they have chosen.